milkha singh won the first national title in the 400-m race in 1960.
milkha singh won the first national title in the 400-m race in 1960.
in which year did milkha singh win the first national title in the 400-m race?
1960
singh was persuaded by jawaharlal nehru to set aside his memories of the partition era to race successfully in 1960 against abdul khaliq in pakistan, where a post-race comment by the then general ayub khan led to him acquiring the nickname of "the flying sikh". some sources say that he set a world record of 45.8 seconds in france, shortly before the rome olympics in the same year but the official report of the games lists the record holder as lou jones, who ran 45.2 at los angeles in 1956. at those olympics, he was involved in a close-run final race in the 400m competition, where he was placed fourth. singh had beaten all the leading contenders other than otis davis, and a medal had been anticipated because of his good form. however, he made an error when leading the race at 250m, slowing down in the belief that his pace could not be sustained and looking round at his fellow competitors. singh believes that these errors caused him to lose his medal opportunity and they are his "worst memory". davis, carl kaufmann and malcolm spence all passed him, and a photo-finish resulted. davis and kaufman were both timed at a world-record breaking 44.9 seconds, while spence and singh went under the pre-games olympic record of 45.9 seconds, set in 1952 by george rhoden and herb mckenley, with times of 45.5 and 45.6 seconds, respectively. "the age" noted in 2006 that "milkha singh is the only indian to have broken an olympic track record. unfortunately he was the fourth man to do so in the same race" but the official olympic report notes that davis had already equalled the rhoden/mckenley olympic record in the quarter-finals and surpassed it with a time of 45.5 seconds in the semi-finals.
milkha singh
although the story mentions that milkha singh held the men's 400 meter world record, the men's 400 metres world record progression does not mention milkha singh's name in the world record holders. it is shown that ranbir singh (milkha singh's coach) mentions world record as 45.9 seconds after 1952 olympics; while milkha eventually bested that time in the 1956 olympics with a personal record of 45.73 seconds, the newest world record was 45.2 seconds set by lou jones of united states, the first-place winner in the same race.
bhaag milkha bhaag