‘Flying Sikh’ Milkha Singh had an emotional connect with Hyderabad City!
The sight of the legendary athlete kissing the ‘hallowed ground’ of the EME Artillery Centre on November 29, 2014 (his last visit to the City) would have been frozen in the memory of all those assembled there on the occasion.
Milkha Singh, 86 then, was in the City as brand ambassador of the Hyderabad 10K Run. He recalled the support he received from everyone at the EME Centre when he was a fresh Army recruit in 1952.
“How can I forget this place! It was here in 1952 that I was encouraged to take up athletics by my coach Havaldar Gurudev Singh,” Milkha Singh said then.
Getting emotional
“Yeh to mujhe Gurudwara samaan hai (this EME Stadium is equivalent to a Gurdwara to me),” he said struggling to control his emotions.
“I never knew about 200m or 400m when I started running. A group of 10 of us was made to run five km every day with the promise that the best would represent the Indian Army and the country in the competitions. And, I topped the group,” he recalled with a big smile.
