The Flying Sikh Arrived in Delhi Homeless and Alone

Milkha Singh was a boy of about 12 when the Partition of India in 1947 upended his life. His family lived in Lyallpur, in what became western Pakistan, and in the riots that followed he lost most of his relatives. Gulf News recounts that his father urged him to flee with the words 'Run, Milkha, run.'

He escaped by hiding on a crowded refugee train bound for Delhi. Looking back, he told the paper that he arrived in the city homeless, penniless and with no one to call his own. He then lived in a government refugee camp, one of the many people who had been displaced by the division of the country.

At 16, on the advice of a relative, he joined the Indian Army. A compulsory cross-country run for recruits revealed his ability: he came sixth, and senior officers noticed him and began training him as a runner.

His results came steadily. In 1955 he was second in the 200 and 400 metres at the Services Athletic Meet, and in 1956 he won the 400 metres at the National Games in Patiala, though he went out in the first round at the Melbourne Olympics. In 1958 he took the 200 and 400 metres at the Asian Games in Tokyo and the 400 metres at the Commonwealth Games in Cardiff, which was India's first athletics gold there.

His best-known race came at the 1960 Rome Olympics, where he finished fourth in the 400 metres, missing the bronze medal by a fraction of a second. Later that year he beat Pakistan's Abdul Khaliq in Lahore, and the nickname 'the Flying Sikh' followed. The boy who reached Delhi with nothing became one of India's most celebrated sprinters.