World's oldest marathon runner, 114, killed in hit-and-run accident

Wednesday, July 16, 2025 - The world’s oldest marathon runner, Fauja Singh, di£d in a hit-and-run on Monday, July 14, according to India police. He was 114. 

Singh, who was still competing in marathons after turning 100 more than a decade ago, was considered the world’s oldest marathon runner, though he never secured a Guinness World Record because he didn’t have a birth certificate. 

According to Indian police, an unknown vehicle hit Singh when he was walking on a road near his native village of Beas, in the northwestern Indian state of Punjab. 

He was sent to the Shrimann Hospital in Jalandhar district where he succumbed to injuries sustained to his head and ribs, Jalandhar Rural Senior Superintendent of Police Harvinder Singh Virk said. 

Police arrested a suspect on Tuesday, July 15, after examining CCTV footage. 

Police later added that that a case has been registered under negligent driving and culpable homicide not amounting to murd£r. 

The 26-year-old suspect lives abroad and his family in Canada has been informed, inspector Hardev Preet Singh at Adampur police station told CNN on Wednesday, July 16, as he was brought to Jalandhar district court. 

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi led nationwide tributes, calling Singh “an exceptional athlete with incredible determination.” 

Singh, whowas unable to walk until he was five due to weakness in his legs, only started running marathons when he was 89, after he moved to England following the death of his wife and son. 

“Running showed me kindness and brought me back to life by making me forget all my traumas and sorrows,” he told CNN in an interview when he was 102. 

He ran his first marathon after just a couple of months of training, and achieved his personal best of five hours and 40 minutes at the 2003 Toronto Waterfront Marathon three years later. 

In 2011, Singh returned to Toronto, where he became the first centenarian on record to complete a marathon, finishing in eight hours, 11 minutes and six seconds.

Born in rural India in 1911 before later moving to London, Singh earned the nickname the “Turbaned Tornado” after he took up marathon running in his late 80s.