102-year-old runner who’s setting records around the globe and the diet of wheatgrass, kefir and pulses that fuels her exploits
Indian Man Kaur took up running at the age of 93 at the urging of her son, 79, and hasn’t looked back since, adding javelin and shot put to her repertoire. Her advice for living a long life? Avoid junk food, eat healthily and always exercise
For a culture that prides itself on respecting elderly people, India has paid scant attention to a 102-year-old woman in Punjab who still competes in the World Masters Games around the globe, clocking up records in the 100- and 200-metre races.
Sitting up in bed in her spartan, partially furnished two-room flat at the Punjabi University campus in Patiala, cosy under a duvet against the winter cold, Man Kaur lives an unsung life.
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There has been scant media coverage of her feats, no magazine profiles, no interviews, no awards, little public recognition at all, in fact, of her astonishing achievements.
Kaur used to lead the average life of an elderly Punjabi woman in Chandigarh, in Punjab. Widowed, her life revolved around her children (in their 60s and 70s) and grandchildren. She began running at 93 when her eldest son, Gurdev Singh, 79, urged her to take it up.
Singh, a retired civil servant from the Punjab Forest Department and a widower himself, is passionate about athletics. For 25 years, he has been participating in the World Masters Games, held every four years, with its philosophy of “sports for all” for people of all ages. He has bagged 80 medals of his own. At the events, he used to see foreign women in their 70s and 80s participating in track events.
“I said, why don’t you run? There is nothing wrong with you physically. You have no health problems, no knee problems, no blood pressure, no heart problem,” he says, of his question to his mother.