After a life shaped by grief and resilience, Singh began running at 89 and became an icon of endurance and joy: “an icon of humanity and a powerhouse of positivity”. He died on July 14, at the age of 114 after being hit by a car in Beas Pind. Waheguru, Waheguru, Waheguru
The first 20 miles of a marathon are not difficult, Fauja Singh once said. When it came to the last six miles, however, “I run while talking to God.”
Fauja Singh poses for photos in September 2011, aged 100, after registering for the Edinburgh Marathon. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty
The fact that he was attempting the distance at all might seem, to some, proof of divine assistance. Singh was 89 when he first took up distance running, having stumbled across a TV snippet of people running a marathon, and decided to give it a go. By his mid-90s he was a marathon veteran, a record holder for his age group and even a poster model for Adidas; aged 101 – or at least so he believed, since he never had a birth certificate – he became the oldest person ever to run the distance.
This week, at the age of 114, Singh’s race finally came to an end. He was hit by a car while crossing the road in his birth village of Beas Pind, near Jalandhar in Punjab, and suffered fatal injuries. A man has been arrested, according to Indian police.
At Singh’s former home in Ilford, east London, where he discovered running and trained for his athletic feats, his friends have been remembering a man who, in the words of his former trainer Harmander Singh (no relation), was “an icon of humanity and a powerhouse of positivity”.
“We wouldn’t say we were ready for [his death], but these circumstances certainly didn’t help,” he said on Thursday, from the park where they used to train together. “It did catch us by surprise.”….
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jul/19/fauja-singh-marathon-running
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After the truth-shower 