Several legends of Indian cricket paid tribute to Milkha Singh, who passed away Friday night after a long battle with Covid-19 at the age of 91. Singh introduced India to track and field and remains its ultimate king till the end. It was last month that he contracted the virus, and even though he was earlier discharged, Singh was hospitalised at the PGIMER, where he breathed his last.
Singh’s passing has left a huge void in India and its sports and many former Indian cricketers including Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh and more, acknowledged the same while paying their respect to ‘The Flying Sikh’.
A former army man, Milkha Singh won several laurels for the country in track and field events across the globe. He won four gold medals for India in the Asian Games, winning the 200 metre and 400 metre races in the 1958 Tokyo Asiad. He followed it up with gold medals in the 400 metre and 4×400 metre relay races in the 1962 Jakarta Asiad.
Singh was unlucky to have missed out on an Olympic medal as he finished a close fourth in the 400 metres final at the 1960 Rome Olympics.