Milkha Singh, popularly known as the Flying Sikh, breathed his last in Chandigarh on Friday night. The 91-year-old had contracted Covid-19 a month back and lost his wife Nirmal Kaur to the virus earlier this week. Pakistan president General Ayub Khan gave Milkha Singh the famous moniker “Flying Sikh”

Milkha Singh: Remembering the Flying Sikh who made India proud (India Today Photo)

Widely regarded as Independent India’s most iconic sporting hero, Milkha Singh took his last breath in Chandigarh on Friday night. He was 91.

Milkha had contracted Covid-19 a month back and lost his wife Nirmal Kaur to the virus earlier this week. Milkha is survived by 14-time international winner and golfer son Jeev Milkha Singh and three daughters Mona Singh, Sonia Singh, and Aleeza Grover.

In his stellar career, Milkha ran many memorable races in his career. The Flying Sikh, as he is popularly known, is best remembered for his 400m race at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, where he became the first Indian male to reach the final of an Olympic event. Milkha was leading that race but eventually missed out on a podium-finish after trailing by 0.1 seconds. Despite finishing fourth, Singh set a new national record that remained untouched for 38 years. Paramjeet Singh broke it in 1998.

A couple of years ago at his residence in Chandigarh, Milkha told this reporter: “It has been 60 years, and the miss at Rome still hurts me. I lost the medal by 0.01 seconds. I was so close.”

Independent India’s global superstar: The Flying Sikh

India, still a young nation in the late 1950s and early 1960s, didn’t know what global stardom was till Milkha arrived at the scene. He changed the narrative, and till today, significantly, few Indian sprinters have come close to matching his calibre and the rich legacy he left behind.

Milkha had also won four Asian Games gold medals – 200m and 400m in 1958, and 400m and 4x400m relay in 1962.

Also See: Milkha Singh’s life through photos

He was also the first athlete to win a Commonwealth Games gold for India in then 440m yard race, achieving the feat during the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games. Milkha’s first commonwealth gold was truly a watershed moment in Indian sporting history, which led to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru declaring a national holiday on his request.

The importance of Singh’s triumph can be underlined by the fact that his record in track and field stayed intact for another 52 years, till Krishna Poonia won the women’s discus throw during the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

‘I realised that I have to keep running’

Born in an undivided Punjab’s Govindpura village (now in Pakistan), among 14 other siblings, Milkha endured one too many tragedies in his childhood. He saw the massacre of his parents and few other siblings during the riots preceding the partition in 1947.

“Putt maine zindagi aur maut dono qareeb se dekhi hai (Son, I have seen life and death very closely). I realised at a very young age that I will have to keep running, and I did that exactly,” Milkha had said to this reporter.

Milkha joined the Indian army in 1951, after failing twice in his previous attempts. He ran his first race — a cross country of five miles — there when army coach Gurdev Singh promised an extra glass of milk to those who finished inside top-10.

He finished sixth and later got selected for special training in 400m. The rest, as they say, is the most incredible legacy in India’s sporting folklore.

In his autobiography, on which the blockbuster Bollywood movie ‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’ is based, he claimed that He won the selection trial at the 1956 Olympics despite being brutally assaulted by his rivals the day before that race.

The battle for Asian Supremacy

Milkha’s life and career story is incomplete without the 1960 Indo-Pak sports meet in Lahore where he defeated Pakistan’s Abdul Khaliq. Pakistan’s Khaliq was considered the fastest man in Asia, having won the 100m gold in the 1958 Asian Games. After winning 400m gold in the same Games, Milkha also beat Khaliq in the 200m final. It was then when Pakistan president General Ayub Khan gave him the famous moniker “Flying Sikh.”

At first, Milkha refused to go to Pakistan as he did not want to return to a country where his parents were butchered but was persuaded by independent India’s first Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru to face his demons.

Milkha retired from athletics after the 1964 Olympics, two years after winning the gold in 400m and 4x400m relay events at the Asian Games held at Jakarta.

Interestingly, an athlete of Milkha’s stature was offered the Arjuna award, instituted in 1961, only in 2001. He famously turned it down, saying the honour was not of the “stature of the services he rendered to the nation.” He was bestowed the Padma Shri in 1959.

Milkha, in his life, had survived one too many close calls before his body lost to Covid-19 after fighting it for a month.

Milkha Singh’s last wish was to see an Indian athlete winning an Olympic medal in the track and field event. Hopefully, in Tokyo, someone will fulfill the legend’s final desire