Tribute to Flying Sikh, Milkha Singh Ji

Here's a time line of Milkha Singh Ji

• Milkha Singh was born on 20 November 1929.
• He was born in a Sikh family of Rathore Rajput origin. His birthplace was Govindpura, a village 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) from Muzaffargarh city in Punjab Province, British India (now Muzaffargarh District, Pakistan).
• He was one of 15 siblings, eight of whom died before the Partition of India.
• He was orphaned during the Partition when his parents, a brother and two sisters were killed in the violence that ensued. He witnessed these killings.
• Singh represented India in the 200m and 400m competitions of the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games.
• In 1958, Singh set records for the 200m and 400m in the National Games of India, held at Cuttack, and also won gold medals in the same events at the Asian Games.
• He then won a gold medal in the 400m (440 yards at this time) competition at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games with a time of 46.6 seconds.
• This latter achievement made him the first gold medalist at the Commonwealth Games from independent India.
• Before Vikas Gowda won the gold in 2014, Milkha was the only Indian male to have won an individual athletics gold medal at those Games.
• Singh was admitted to the intensive care unit at Fortis Hospital in Mohali on 24 May 2021 with pneumonia caused by COVID-19. His condition was, for a while, described as stable, but he died on 18 June 2021 at 11:30 pm in Chandigarh.

"Singh was persuaded by Jawaharlal Nehru to set aside his memories of the Partition era to race successfully in 1960 against Abdul Khaliq in Pakistan."

- By Indian prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru