Oldest marathon man runs last race at 101

Fauja Singh finished the Hong Kong marathon's 10km race in 1 hour, 32 minutes and 28 seconds.

Singh, a Sikh, wore a saffron turban and sported a flowing white beard. As he followed the route along the northern lip of the Hong Kong island, he was accompanied by a group from the city's local Sikh community, joining about 72,000 other runners taking part in the marathon.

Sadness

The Indian-born runner, nicknamed the Turbaned Torpedo, had said that he would hang up his sneakers after the race in the southern Chinese city, just before his 102nd birthday.

"I will remember this day. I will miss it," Singh said after crossing the finish line.

Singh, a great-grandfather, became the oldest man to run a full marathon at Toronto in 2011, at the age of 100. But his record was not recognised by Guinness World Records because he doesn't have a birth certificate to prove his age. Singh has a British passport that shows his date of birth as April 1, 1911, while a letter from Indian government officials states that birth records were not kept in 1911.

"I am feeling a bit of happiness and a bit of sadness mixed together. I am happy that I am retiring at the top of the game but I am sad that the time has come for me to not be part of it," Singh said in a pre-race interview. "And there will always be times in the future where I will be thinking, "Well, I used to do that (running)," the Punjabi-speaking Singh said through his coach and interpreter, Harmander Singh.

Singh took up running as a way to get over depression after his wife and son died in quick succession in India.

hnews@herald.ie