A man who didn’t start running marathons until he was 89 is hoping to become the first undisputed centenarian known to have completed the 26.2-mile race.
Fauja Singh, 100, of the United Kingdom, is expected to run the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon on Sunday in Canada. If he completes it, Guinness World Records will recognize him as the world’s oldest marathoner.
“He’s really happy, and looking forward to it,” his coach, Harmander Singh, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
Guinness had recognized Dimitrion Yordanidis, 98, as the world’s oldest marathoner for running in Athens in 1976. Yordanidis isn’t among the records kept by the Association of Road Racing Statisticians, which already recognizes Fauja Singh as the oldest for the last marathon he ran, at age 93 in 2004.
Singh, nicknamed the Turbaned Tornado, took up running 20 years ago – around the time he moved to England from India – after losing his wife and son, the CBC and the marathon’s website say.
He began running marathons at 89, completing seven through age 93. He set the current world record for people 90 and older with a time of five hours, 40 minutes and four seconds in Toronto in 2003.
He jogs and walks eight to 10 miles per day, according to Toronto marathon organizers.
“I have said it before: that I will carry on running, as it is keeping me alive,” Singh said, according to the marathon’s site.
Back in 2002, when he was the oldest entrant of the London Marathon at age 92, CNN reported that Singh credited his fitness in part to meditation, fresh food and ginger curry.
Some readers may recall that a British man, Pierre Jean “Buster” Martin, claimed to have been 101 when he ran the London Marathon in 2008. But Guinness declined to recognize his run, saying it couldn’t verify his age.
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
| Advertising practices | Advertise with us | About us | Work for us | Help
Very inspiring!!
I am 35 and started Yoga after looking at how healthy some of my friends and colleagues. Americans are the true yogis in the world, 40m Americans practise yoga on a weekly basis without bothering about religious beliefs. While malaysian clergy has issued a fatwa against yoga being practiced as it originates from the land of infidels.
Americans are inspiring.
39 here and started yoga at age 38. It was for the same reason as you. Now I'm super fit – much more so than at any age in my life.
61 more years to go to catch up to this guy. Talk about inspiring.
Exercise truly is a lifesaver.
Right! And Americans invented Buddhist meditation etc. etc.
Boring...
Get em', Flash.
interesting that your posting this childish rubbish on blogs that will be gone tomorrow
DONNA
your sooo very childish honey, go home
stop the obsession with Cnn and Philip
BTW do you EVER spend a whole week with your family and without Cnn
NOT
and no this is NOT Jazzzzzzz
FIGURE I T OUT SMARTY
Pretty confusing comment.
WOW! I'm in awe. I tried so hard to be a runner and just couldn't cut it. The best I was able to do was Bay to Breakers (12K). I simply can't imagine running a marathon.
SactoGirl,
I was in the same situation, and never ran more than 5 miles or so. Then I read a book by Jeff Galloway – "Marathon: You can do it!". The prescription was simple – to take regular walk breaks. In a matter of 6 months, at the age of 45, I completed my first marathon in 4 hours 43 minutes. Not a great time, but not bad for a person who had never been much of an athlete. If you really want to do it, get on a training plan, and in in 4-6 months, you should be able to run a marathon.
I'm 62 and I hurt when I get out of bed. This guy really is a testimony to eastern health practices. Plus he's got jam.
Good luck
Very boring...
I am afraid about his security in North America. Its completely different than Europe. Here in north america we have all kinds of bigots. It is very possible that a red neck or a tea bagger might confuse this guy with Osama and shoot him
Human, it's rather unfortunte that upon seeing a Sikh man referred to in the article that your inclination is to associate him with Osama and terrorism. Perhaps you represent the very bigotism that you mention.... Perhaps we ought to look at him as just another person, as opposed to being race conscious. It's a marathon at the end of the day, who cares where he's from!
Osama is rotting at the bottom of the sea. No chance of confusion.
this is why I am running a 50 mile, too many marathoners out there
Very very boring....
I am an over 60 marathoner myself. I was curious as to which marathon Singh had run in 2003, the Toronto Marathon or the Toronto Waterfront Marathon, as I ran the Toronto Marathon in 2003, but have never run the Waterfront Marathon. I checked the online results for both and could not find Singh's name with a finish time of 5 hours 40 minutes or any time close to it. Marathon results are usually 100% reliable, so this is a puzzle.
Here's the result: http://www.canadarunningseries.com/results/2003/stwm/scotiae.htm
48 5:40:03.6 8:04 5:40:01.2 11 Singh, Fauga Woodbridge 19/27 1/1 Men 70 + 1:01:43 1:54:26 1:01:53 1:42:03
This result is in the Early Bird section ... not sure what that means, but the web page indicates a 6:15am start. This year, the start time is 9am, and no indication of an early start. There is a 6 hour time limit, but hopefully they will allow him some extra time.
Not true. I actually ran my first marathon last November in San Antonio. However due to a defective chip, I never "officially finished.
i think u need come out of ur mothers basement ur ignorant red neck incest lover mofker
get a life sausage muncher
Suck a fat one idiot. You're a loser posting on here
Congratulations, Fauja Singh! 8 hours and 11 minutes is a long time to be running!
http://www.sportstats.ca/display-results.php?racecode=47498&first=FAUJA&last=SINGH&city=london
3850 FAUJA SINGH LONDON 100 8:25:16.3 8:11:05.9 11:59 2476/2552 1:44:03 3:43:39 5:36:00 6:25:46
This man has no birth certificate either.
But you do. You're certifiable.
This man has no proof of birth, either. We should not take claimants to "world" record status at face value without sufficient proof.
Sincerely,
Robert Young
Senior Consultant for Gerontology
Guinness World Records
ryoung122@yahoo.com
Why are you assuming that he does not have birth certificate?
Thank goodness Fauja Singh isn't an American, he would've died of obesity years ago, or perhaps gunshot wounds. God bless you Mr. Singh an inspiration to us all.
Yeah, we know you all started yoga. Because your a loser to post a comment on here.