Fauja Singh, world’s oldest marathoner, dies after hit-and-run accident

Police arrest driver of a speeding car which hit the 114-year-old in India

Fauja Singh, the British-based Indian runner who rose to fame for his veteran record-breaking marathon achievements, has died in a road accident. He was believed to be 114 years old.

Singh, who lived in Ilford in east London, was hit by a car and suffered fatal injuries while crossing a road in his birth village of Beas Pind, near Jalandhar in Punjab, on Monday (July 14).

A man has been arrested in connection with the accident.

Singh took up running in 2000 aged 89 shortly after moving from India to Britain and went on to run 6:02:43 in the 2003 London Marathon in the M90 age group before improving to 5:40:04 a few months later that year in Toronto. Later, in 2011, he claimed to be the first centenarian to run a marathon with 8:11:06 in Toronto.

However, there were doubts over his age – as Singh had no birth certificate to prove his date of birth – and statisticians were dubious about awarding him masters records. Guinness World Records also did not recognise his world age group performances due to the lack of proof about his age, but he was sponsored by adidas and included in their Impossible is Nothing campaign in 2004, whereas in 2012 he was one of the Olympic torch carriers.

Singh did, however, have a passport with a date of birth of April 1, 1911, but birth certificates were not often not produced in India during that period. He was also congratulated by the Queen on his 100th birthday and received a British Empire Medal in 2015.