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Friday, July 18, 2025
Senior British-Indian marathon runner Fauja Singh died from sustained head injuries on Monday, July 14, after a vehicle struck him near Beas Pind, in the north-western Jalandhar district. At the claimed age of 114, Singh is believed to have been the world’s oldest competitive marathoner.
Singh’s couch Harmander Singh first announced his death in a post made on behalf of his London-based running club Sikhs in the City.
On Tuesday night, the Punjab police reportedly arrested the vehicle’s driver, a 33-year-old man returning from the nearby town Bhogpur. According to police, Singh could have survived the injuries had the man taken him to the local Shrimann Hospital immediately.
Singh said he started running to cope with the deaths of his wife Gian Kaur and his younger son Kuldeep in the 1990s. He debuted at the 2000 London Marathon, completing the race in five hours and 54 minutes. Always wearing a turban, he eventually earned the nickname “Turbaned Tornado”, though event organisers initially only allowed him to wear a patka (a different type of Sikh headgear).
In 2003, Singh finished the Toronto Waterfront Marathon in five hours and 40 minutes, far outperforming his previous records.. He ran at Toronto once again in 2011, finishing the race in eight hours and 11 minutes and allegedly becoming the first centenarian to complete a marathon, though the Guinness World Records has not certified the record as Singh did not have a birth certificate from 1911.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Singh “an exceptional athlete with incredible determination” and expressed condolences for his family.
