Pritam Singh Khalsa: An Unsung Hero of Cycling
Pritam Singh Khalsa: An Unsung Hero of Cycling
World-Class Cyclist - At a Youthful 73!
Two living icons of the Sikh community. Different nationalities, yet proud of their origin, Punjab. One a great-grandfather, the other a mere grandfather.
One runs. The other cycles.
The first is 95-year-old Fauja Singh, Britain’s oldest marathon runner and world record holder.
The second is twenty-two years younger. Little has been heard about him. Yet, he is legendary in the world of cycling, as he could put to shame the young and the pretentious.
Meet 73-year-old Pritam Singh Saini, who bicycles 260 km everyday just to keep his blood warm. In 2005, he won his eighth gold medal at the Edmonton World Masters Games, cycling 100 km.
Both men picked up their respective sports late in life, in the early 1990s. The difference – the first is a world-renowned figure having run seven full international marathons (26 miles); the other remains relatively unrecognized.
Both are deeply spiritual and connected to their Faith.
The younger one is Amritdhari.
The older athelete isn’t. But he’s a vegetarian and a teetotaler. Confessing to this correspondent during an interview on the streets of East London, Fauja Singh once explained that he starts sneezing uncontrollably if he takes a bath early in the morning – a reason that keeps him from taking Amrit. [The Khalsa code of conduct prescribes an early morning routine.Read More
Switch from SUVs & bikes to cycles
To make people aware about the environment,world famous 80-year-old cyclist Preetam Singh Saini came to Sarabha Nagar Gurdwara to take part in a cycle rally today. Even at this age,Saini cycles about 260 km a day and often travels from his Hoshiarpur village to Chandigarh or even to Ludhiana or Amritsar and other areas on his cycle.
Saini asked the youngsters to switch over to bicycles from their SUVs and two-wheelers to reduce carbon emissions and keep themselves fit. This will reduce traffic and one need not follow any diet plan or visit gyms to lose weight, he said. He said told that he drinks 2 litres of milk early in the morning along with soaked almonds which are the basic ingredients in his diet. He is a complete vegetarian and teetotaler.
Cycling 260 kms a day to keep his blood warm
HOSHIARPUR: Little has been heard about him. Yet, he is legendary in the world of cycling, as he could put to shame the young and the pretentious. Meet 70-year-old Pritam Singh Saini, a baptised Sikh, who claims to bicycle 260 kilometres everyday day just to keep his blood warm.Singh figures in the Guinness Book of world records (1993) for cycling the maximum number of kilometres per day, ie 357 kilometres. According to him, he broke the record of 300 kilometres held by a German. Singh”s name was added in the Guiness book of world records for having covered a distance of 5000 kilometres from Hoshiarpur to Mumbai and back in a little less that 14 days on his ”Atlas ordinary Goldline Super”. This adventure was part of a goodwill mission on behalf of the Punjab government in 1992. Pritam Singh”s latest feat has been a gold medal in the cycle race at the Melbourne 2002 Worlds Masters” games, the biggest multi-sport festival on earth. Singh claims to have ridden more than 10 lakh kilometres on bicycle after 1991.In 1991 he retired as a head master of a government school. He says that “A man is as old as he feels and he will keep on winning medals for India till he is hundred”. According to him the secret of his success can be attributed to 15 qualities that include self-respect, meditation, perseverance, luck, courage and will power.”
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