Milkha Singh Won Four Asian Games Golds and the 1958 Commonwealth Games 440 Yards, and His 45.73 Seconds at the Rome Olympics in 1960 Stood as India's 400 Metres Record for 38 Years

Milkha Singh ran the 400 metres final at the Rome Olympics on 6 September 1960 in 45.73 seconds, a fourth-place finish and an Indian national record that stood for 38 years. Olympedia, the database kept by Olympic historians, gives his hand time as 45.6 and the electronic time as 45.73, and World Athletics’ obituary of him supplies the 38 years.

The Rome final, round by round

Olympedia’s page for the event says there was no heavy favourite in 1960 and names Singh as an interesting challenger, because he had won the 1958 Commonwealth Games, the first major track and field title for India. He reached the final through three rounds. His times were 47.72 in round one (second in his heat), 46.71 in the quarter-final (second) and 46.08 in the semi-final (third in his heat).

In the final, Otis Davis of the United States and Carl Kaufmann of Germany were both timed at 44.9 by hand, a world record. Davis won on the electronic clock, 45.07 to 45.08. Malcolm Spence of South Africa took bronze in 45.60, and Singh’s 45.73 put him 0.13 behind Spence. The results page lists Manfred Kinder of Germany fifth in 46.04.

ESPN, retelling Singh’s own account, says he started too fast, feared he would not finish and slowed around the 250 metre mark. The mark he set was beaten in 1998, when Paramjit Singh ran 45.70, according to ESPN.

Rome was one of three Olympics for him. Olympedia lists the 1956 Games, where he went out in the heats of the 200 m and 400 m, and 1964, where he ran the 4x400 m relay heat.

Gold at Tokyo and Cardiff in 1958

Earlier in 1958 Singh won the 200 m and the 400 m at the Asian Games in Tokyo. The Bridge reports that he beat Pakistan’s Abdul Khaliq by 0.1 second in the 200 m in a Games record of 21.6 seconds. Khaliq had won the 100 m at the 1954 and 1958 Asian Games.

At the Commonwealth Games in Cardiff later that year he won the 440 yards. ESPN says he beat Spence by 0.3 seconds. World Athletics calls him the first Indian man to win a Commonwealth gold in athletics. The Quint reports, citing a BBC interview with Singh, that the Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, asked what he would like as a reward and he asked for a day’s holiday in India. The Quint says Nehru declared one.

At the 1962 Asian Games he defended the 400 m title and anchored India to the 4x400 m relay gold in a Games record of 3:10.2, World Athletics reports. Olympedia counts four Asian Games golds in all, from 1958 and 1962. World Athletics’ obituary calls him a three-time Asian Games champion, which matches his three individual titles (the 200 m and 400 m in 1958, the 400 m in 1962), with the relay as the fourth gold.

The government’s recognition came early. The Gazette of India Extraordinary of 26 January 1959 lists “Jemadar Milkha Singh, Athlete, Southern Command, Secunderabad” among the Padma Shri recipients that year, with his Army rank in the entry.

From Govindpura to an Army track

World Athletics and Olympedia both give his birthplace as Govindpura, a village now in Pakistan, and say his parents and three siblings were killed during the 1947 Partition. He reached Delhi and lived in a refugee camp before joining the Army in the early 1950s, where he was introduced to athletics. tuput’s account of how the Partition line was drawn covers the 1947 border and the migration that followed.

Sources differ on the date of his birth. World Athletics lists 20 November 1929. Olympedia’s profile gives 17 October 1935, and with it an age of 85 at death, where World Athletics and the news reports of June 2021 say 91.

ESPN says that during the 1947 violence his father urged him to run, with the words “Bhaag Milkha, bhaag”, which became the title of the 2013 film.

Lahore in 1960 and the name Flying Sikh

World Athletics’ record shows a 200 m of 20.7 for Singh in Lahore on 31 January 1960, seven months before Rome. Dawn, a Pakistani newspaper, reports that President Ayub Khan organised an India and Pakistan meet in Lahore in 1960 and that Singh beat Khaliq over 200 metres. Singh was reluctant to go. In a Tribune account from December 2010, reposted by SikhNet, he says he did not want to travel to Pakistan, where his parents had died, and Nehru persuaded him to put the past behind him.

In that account Khaliq led early, Singh passed him after about 150 yards and won by roughly seven yards, and Ayub Khan told him afterwards, “Milkha you did not run, you flew.” In his account, that remark is where the name Flying Sikh came from. The Tribune account puts the crowd at about 60,000, which is Singh’s own estimate.

What Bhaag Milkha Bhaag shows

Bhaag Milkha Bhaag was released on 12 July 2013. Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra directed it, Farhan Akhtar plays Singh, and Prasoon Joshi wrote the screenplay, according to the Hollywood Reporter’s review. Apple TV’s listing gives the runtime as 3 hours 8 minutes and Dalip Tahil in the cast as Nehru. The producers named in the Press Information Bureau’s award notice are Viacom 18 Motion Pictures and ROMP Pictures.

The Hollywood Reporter’s Lisa Tsering writes that the screenplay does not run in chronological order and relies on flashbacks, covering the Partition, his years as a refugee and his rise to national champion. She called it a three-hour film that asks for viewer endurance and pays off with an exhilarating climax.

The film is a dramatisation, and the record differs from it in places. It closes on the race in Pakistan, as the sports site The Olympians also describes it, while World Athletics’ record has Singh’s Lahore 200 m on 31 January 1960, before Rome. Apple TV’s synopsis says a Pakistani commander gives Singh the title Flying Sikh, whereas Singh’s own account names Ayub Khan, then Pakistan’s president.

The 61st National Film Awards, announced on 16 April 2014, gave Bhaag Milkha Bhaag the award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment. The jury’s citation reads, “For retaining the story and values of a great sportsman and translating it into the cinematic medium with aplomb.” Ganesh Acharya won Best Choreography for the song “Maston ka Jhund”.

Business Today, citing Box Office India, reported on 7 August 2013 that the film had earned over Rs 102 crore in 24 days. ESPN reports that Singh sold the film rights for one rupee on condition that a share of the profits went to his charity. Olympedia says he founded the Milkha Singh Charitable Trust in 2003 to help poor and needy sportspeople. Another Hindi sports film built on real athletes, Dangal, has its own account on tuput.

18 June 2021

Milkha Singh died at 11.30 pm on 18 June 2021 in the intensive care unit of PGIMER in Chandigarh, from complications of COVID-19, as the family and the hospital said. His wife, Nirmal Kaur, had died on 13 June at a private hospital in Mohali, EastMojo reports.

The Press Information Bureau published the Prime Minister’s message on 19 June. Narendra Modi wrote that “we have lost a colossal sportsperson, who captured the nation’s imagination” and added that he had spoken to Singh a few days earlier, and that several budding athletes would draw strength from his life. World Athletics quoted Neeraj Chopra as saying, “We lost a gem.”

India’s first Olympic gold in athletics came on 7 August 2021, when Chopra won the javelin at Tokyo with 87.58 m, the Press Information Bureau reported. tuput has the full record of Chopra’s medals and distances.