Kolkata: “Tumhe rukna nahi hai (you cannot stop),” these were the words from legendary Milkha Singh to Indian football’s No.1 goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu back in 2015 during an awards ceremony. Not just Gurpreet, there have been numerous incidents where Milkha Singh inspired the following generation through his words, stories and much more.
The iconic sprinter breathed his last on Friday after failing to cope up with the post-COVID-related symptoms in Chandigarh. A few days ago he lost his wife Nirmal Kaur Saini, who was a former captain of the India women’s national volleyball team.
Nicknamed as ‘Flying Sikh’, Milkha Singh rose to fame when he missed on a men’s 400m medal at the 1960 Rome Olympics. Touted as one of favourites to win a medal in the event, Milkha Singh led the race till the 200m mark before easing off a bit.
Milkha Singh’s idea of slowing down in a belief that he won’t be able to sustain his pace and look around at his fellow competitors prove fatal as the Indian finished fourth with 45.6s behind American Otis Davis (44.9s), German Carl Kaufmann (44.9s) and South African Malcolm Spence (45.5s). Officially, Milkha Singh was 0.13s behind Spence and 0.67s behind Davis.
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While there are several discussions on the internet at how the race transpired for Milkha Singh on September 6, 1960, at the Olympic Stadium, Sportslight Media caught up with Italian award-winning senior journalist Gianni Merlo, who was present at the stands as a mere 13-year-old spectator, when the Indian made history.
“For sure, I was 13 years old and Milkha Singh was wearing a white turban,” Gianni, who is also the current International Sports Press Association (AIPS) president, told this website exclusively from Italy. “At that time there were no Google or other possibility to meet Indians. So I was impressed also by his way of running,” the 74-year-old recalled.
Unlike now, in those times, the Olympics village was open for all. Despite that, Gianni couldn’t meet Milkha Singh in person. “No, I did not have the opportunity to meet him even if the Olympics village at that time was open to everybody as a park,” added Gianni, who was accompanied by his father Dante.
Gianni also stated that there was a craze about Milkha Singh among the fans as he brought something different from the others at the Olympics. “The public liked him because he was different, something new. Before that I have read about the Sikh only in the book of Italian novelist Emilio Salgari,” Gianni reminisced.
Revisiting old memories of the ‘Flying Sikh’ Milkha Singh in action 🙏 pic.twitter.com/tQjSw8d0u8
— Harjinder Singh Kukreja (@SinghLions) June 20, 2021
Asked if he remembered anything about Mikha Singh after the race, Gianni didn’t. “I have no memory of him after competition because the first two (Davis and Kaufmann) made something special arriving in the same time creating problems for the photo finish,” he concluded.
Besides, the 1960 Games, Milkha Singh also competed in the 1956 Melbourne Games and 1964 Olympics in Tokyo. He is the only athlete to win gold at 400m at the Asian Games as well as the Commonwealth Games. He also won gold medals in the 1958 and 1962 Asian Games. Milkha Singh was awarded the Padma Shri in 1959.
