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101-Year-Old 'Turbaned Tornado' Retires From Running

Fauja Singh, the 101-year-old "turbaned tornado," with other runners Sunday in Hong Kong.
Jayne Russell
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Fauja Singh, the 101-year-old "turbaned tornado," with other runners Sunday in Hong Kong.

Fauja Singh has decided, at the age of 101, to put his feet up and rest.

Or, at least, to stop participating in long-distance races.

The Indian-born British citizen known as the "turbaned tornado" was among the competitors Sunday at a 10-kilometer race in Hong Kong. According to Sports Illustrated, he completed the 6.2-mile course in 1 hour, 32 minutes and 28 seconds.

"I will remember this day. I will miss it," Singh said after the race, SI adds.

Back in October 2011, as we reported at the time, the then-100-year-old Singh finished Toronto's waterfront marathon in just over 8 hours, 11 minutes. He's still not in the Guinness World Records. Officials there have balked at declaring him the oldest-ever marathon runner because he can't show them a birth certificate. He does, though, have a passport that shows his date of birth as April 1, 1911.

Last summer, Singh was among those who carried the Olympic torch on its way to the Summer Games in London.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.
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