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Fauja Singh took up running in his eighties, after losing his wife and then a son. He ran his first marathon in London in 2000, at 89, and on 16 October 2011 finished the Toronto Waterfront Marathon in 8 hours 11 minutes, aged 100 by the birth date in his British passport.

Toronto, 2011

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Singh was a farmer from Punjab, in northern India; by family accounts he could not walk until he was five. He moved to England in the 1990s and lived with one of his sons in Ilford, east London. Guinness World Records never listed his Toronto run, because he had no birth certificate and a passport alone could not prove his age. He completed about nine marathons in all, and his last race was a 10-kilometre run in Hong Kong in 2013. He died in July 2025, aged 114 by his passport, after being struck by a vehicle in his home village of Beas Pind.

Türkçe oku
Fauja Singh koşmaya seksenli yaşlarında, önce eşini, ardından bir oğlunu kaybedince başladı. İlk maratonunu 2000'de Londra'da, 89 yaşında koştu. 16 Ekim 2011'de Toronto Waterfront Maratonu'nu 8 saat 11 dakikada bitirdiğinde, İngiliz pasaportundaki doğum tarihine göre 100 yaşındaydı.
Toronto, 2011

Singh, Hindistan'ın kuzeyindeki Pencap'ta çiftçilik yapmıştı; ailesinin anlattığına göre beş yaşına kadar yürüyememişti. 1990'larda İngiltere'ye göç etti ve Londra'nın doğusundaki Ilford'da oğullarından birinin yanına yerleşti. Guinness Dünya Rekorları Toronto koşusunu hiçbir zaman kayda geçirmedi; Singh'in doğum belgesi yoktu ve yaşını kanıtlamaya pasaport tek başına yetmiyordu. Hayatı boyunca dokuz kadar maraton koştu; son yarışı 2013'te Hong Kong'daki 10 kilometrelik bir koşuydu. Temmuz 2025'te, doğduğu köy Beas Pind'de bir aracın çarpması sonucu hayatını kaybetti; pasaportuna göre 114 yaşındaydı.

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