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World-Class Cyclist - At a Youthful 73!

by KHUSHWANT SINGH

Two living icons of the Sikh community. Different nationalities, yet proud of their origin, Punjab. One a great-grandfather, the other a mere grandfather.

One runs. The other cycles.

The first is 95-year-old Fauja Singh, Britain's oldest marathon runner and world record holder.

The second is twenty-two years younger. Little has been heard about him. Yet, he is legendary in the world of cycling, as he could put to shame the young and the pretentious.

Meet 73-year-old Pritam Singh Saini, who bicycles 260 km everyday just to keep his blood warm. In 2005, he won his eighth gold medal at the Edmonton World Masters Games, cycling 100 km.

Both men picked up their respective sports late in life, in the early 1990s. The difference - the first is a world-renowned figure having run seven full international marathons (26 miles); the other remains relatively unrecognized.

Both are deeply spiritual and connected to their Faith.

The younger one is Amritdhari.

The older athelete isn't. But he's a vegetarian and a teetotaler. Confessing to this correspondent during an interview on the streets of East London, Fauja Singh once explained that he starts sneezing uncontrollably if he takes a bath early in the morning - a reason that keeps him from taking Amrit. [The Khalsa code of conduct prescribes an early morning routine.]

Fauja Singh attributes his fame to the high esteem his home-country, Britain, holds him in, contrary to the 'mad-man' tag his mates back in Jalandhar would give him if he ran around the galis in his old village.

It's a challenge that Pritam Singh too faces at home. With no source of motivation from the civil society or the government, his marching to his own drum carries the risk of being associated with senility. He is fuelled only with self-motivation, for he wants to keep the flag fluttering till he is a 100.

Fauja Singh, the 'running baba', is looking forward to 2009, the year he turns 98 and becomes the oldest marathon runner in the world. He runs faster each time he competes.

The younger one, Pritam Singh, betters his cycling record at each event (100 km in 1 hr, 45 mins). While the former thrives on a moderate diet, the latter can easily handle desi ghee, milk and almonds. After all, he's still young.

Born on November 5, 1933, Pritam completed his Bachelor's in Science in 1955.

He retired as a head master of a government school in 1991. He now lives in Hoshiarpur with his wife, Bimla, and their four children.

He believes that a man is as old as he feels, and intends to keep on winning medals till he is a 100. The secret of his success, he confides, is his adherence to a list of 15 qualities. They include: self-respect, meditation, perseverance, luck, courage and will-power.

Pritam Singh wakes up at 3:30 am and gets ready by 4:00 am, followed by simran till 4:30. He then goes for a 5 km run, after which he drinks two litres of hot milk, along with two teaspoons of almond oil, honey and ghee. He then picks up any one of the 17 bicycles he owns, and heads out for either Chandigarh or Amritsar - to be back in eight hours, covering roughly 260 kilometers or so.

He has won 8 Gold Medals in a row in World Masters games and other International events since 1994. He figures in the Guinness Book of World Records (1993) for cycling the maximum number of km per day, i.e., 357 km.

He points out that he broke the record of 300 km, held until then by a German cyclist. Pritam's name was also added to the Guinness Book for having covered a distance of 5000 km from Hoshiarpur to Mumbai and back, in less than 14 days, on his 'Atlas Goldline Super'. This adventure was part of a goodwill mission on behalf of the Punjab government in 1992.

Another feat was the gold medal win in the cycle race at the Melbourne 2002 World Masters Games, the biggest multi-sport festival on Earth.

Overall, Pritam claims, he has completed well over a million km on his bicycle since 1991.

Pritam Singh cycles to New Delhi ...to pick up his visa, for example. It takes him 12 hours to cover the 386 km. To signal his supremacy in the Masters category, he once challenged his English counterparts to a non-stop cycle race from London to Glasgow.

Two years later, it was an Italian who finally took him up on the challenge. Pritam recalls that it was a grueling marathon, but he completed the distance in 13 hours, 19 minutes and 55.5 seconds, leaving behind the challenger by 20 minutes.

Fauja Singh and Pritam Singh are yet to come face to face. The junior one says he looks forward to meeting the senior one day, if only to bend down and touch his feet!

Between them, they make the world wonder - what mettle (or metal) are these two Sikhs made of? Chak De !