4 Jan, 2012, 01.31PM IST, IANS
My job is to run: 100-year-old marathoner Fauja Singh
CHANDIGARH: His marathons at the ripe old age of 100 may not have been recognised by Guinness World Records on technical grounds, but Punjab-born British citizen Fauja Singh says the only thing he cares about is to keep running.
In fact Fauja, who will turn 101 April 1 this year, says he has not even heard of Guinness.
The interesting part is not being recognized by Guinness because according to the article...
Guinness had refused to recognise Fauja Singh as the world's oldest marathoner in October last year after he successfully completed the Toronto Marathon (42.195 km) in just over eight hours. Though Guinness officials came to witness his feat in Toronto, they refused to acknowledge him as the oldest man running marathons as he could not produce a birth certificate.
Chandigarh-based author Khushwant Singh, who wrote Fauja Singh's biography, "Turbaned Tornado" (Rupa Publications, price Rs.250) last year, says Guinness not recognizing Fauja Singh as the oldest marathoner showed a definite bias.
"In 1911, when Fauja Singh was born in a Punjab village, there was nothing like birth certificates. I feel that rules of Guinness book and other agencies in western countries are quite biased towards achievers from Asian countries. Would they question the British government, which ruled India at that time (1911), why it didn't have birth certificates at that time," Khushwant asked.
No comments:
Post a Comment