Milkha Singh’s heart-rending finish at 1960 Rome Olympics

The legendary sprinter came fourth in a race that went down to a photo finish

The 1960 Olympic Games were chock-full of exhilarating sports contests as the world’s top athletes from Muhammad Ali to Wilma Rudolph came together at the biggest stage in sport to claim victory for their nations. The Indian hockey team had had a streak of victories since 1928 but in that year, it lost the top spot to Pakistan. India’s only other medal hopes rested on the shoulder of a 30-year-old Milkha Singh.

The “Flying Sikh”, who passed away on June 18 due to Covid-19 complications, was in spectacular form going into the 400-metre sprint and was one of the favourites to clinch gold in the 1960 Rome Olympics. Singh was the only Indian to win gold in both the Commonwealth and Asian Games, and came excruciatingly close to a medal in the race that went down to a photo-finish.

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Singh had put in a lot of work for the event since representing the country in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, where he failed to qualify beyond the heats, given his relative inexperience. His meeting with the eventual 400-metre champion at the event, Charles Jenkins, lit a fire in Singh. He had said in a 2008 interview with the BBC that he spoke to the American sprinter in "tuta-phuta" (broken) English, and took notes on his training schedule.

That fire and verve saw Singh smash records at the National Games of India, held at Cuttack, two years prior to the famous Rome event.

Milkha Singh had beaten all the top contenders before the race, sparking hopes for a medal, but in the end, fell short by the smallest of margins. Singh came fourth in an incredibly close race, while basketball-turned-runner Otis Davis beat German Carl Kaufmann in a nerve-wracking photo-finish, both of whom were awarded a record-breaking time of 44.9 seconds.

South African Malcolm Spence reached the finish line just ahead of Singh, who had set the pace for the race till the 250-metre mark. Singh had described the race as his “worst memory” after the death of his parents, recognising his fatal error of slowing down following a dangerously quick start and a look around at his competitors.

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“The one medal I had yearned for throughout my career had just slipped through my fingers because of one small error of judgement," Milkha wrote in his 160-page autobiography that coincided with the release of a blockbuster biopic on his life 'Bhaag Milkha Bhaag'.

However, all four top runners came under the pre-games Olympic record of 45.9 seconds. Singh was the only Indian to have broken an Olympics track record, but, unfortunately for him, the feat came in a race where he was the fourth man to do so in the same race.