Dharampal Singh Gudha, also known as Dharam Pal Singh or Dharampal Singh Gujjar, is an Indian runner who has controversially claimed to be the world's oldest

marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of , usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair div ...

runner at 120."Still Running at 119? Not So Fast"
by Jeré Longman and Hari Kumar, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', 16 November 2016

Life

Gudha claims to have been born on 6 October 1897, comes from the village of Gudha in Meerut, and is a farmer by profession. He claims to have been running since he was a teenager. "When I was young, I used to run from my village to the neighboring village, which was about 600 to 700 meters away. I would run several laps. I did not know how to run then, the technique of it, but I did it on instinct," he says. He gets up at 4 am and runs four kilometers daily. He takes part in Inter-State level races for Veterans in the 100, 200- and 400-meter categories. To date, Gujjar has taken part in more than three dozen races in different parts of the country. Gudha has lost count of the number of marathons that he has run. However, he recollects running at marathons in

Allahabad Allahabad (), officially known as Prayagraj, also known as Ilahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi (Benares). It is the administrat ...

Nainital Nainital ( Kumaoni: ''Naintāl''; ) is a city and headquarters of Nainital district of Kumaon division, Uttarakhand, India. It is the judicial capital of Uttarakhand, the High Court of the state being located there and is the headquarters o ...

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand ( , or ; , ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; the official name until 2007), is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the "Devbhumi" (literally 'Land of the Gods') due to its religious significance and ...

and

Chandigarh Chandigarh () is a planned city in India. Chandigarh is bordered by the state of Punjab to the west and the south, and by the state of Haryana to the east. It constitutes the bulk of the Chandigarh Capital Region or Greater Chandigarh, which al ...

, and claims to have run in 50 others. He states that he ran his first marathon in 1970. In 2017,

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did a special episode in their ''

Explorer Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

'' series investigating his life and success as a runner in such an advanced age. When asked about his continued fitness, he says it is all about having a controlled diet. He has led a strict healthy lifestyle since childhood and gives credit to his balanced diet of self-prepared

chutney A chutney is a spread in the cuisines of the Indian subcontinent. Chutneys are made in a wide variety of forms, such as a tomato relish, a ground peanut garnish, yogurt or curd, cucumber, spicy coconut, spicy onion or mint dipping sauce. ...

along with mineral water and lemon juice for his longevity. "I eat a strict and balanced diet and have no illness. I stopped eating

ghee Ghee is a type of clarified butter, originating from India. It is commonly used in India for cooking, as a traditional medicine, and for religious rituals. Description Ghee is typically prepared by simmering butter, which is churned from c ...

and other fatty items almost 40 years ago, neither do I drink or smoke," he said. He has been a strict vegetarian since birth.

Film

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film director, David Freid, has made a documentary on DharamPal Singh Gujjar, ''The Never-Ending Marathon of Mr. Dharam Singh'', in 2017.

Controversy

Gudha's claims of being 120 years old has generated much controversy. While Gudha refers to his passport, voter ID Card and PAN card tax identification in India��all stating 1897 as his year of birth, and all three government of India-issued valid identity documents—asserting he is 120 years old, he does not have a birth certificate to prove this age. It has been suggested that Gudha has an old voter ID that has not been corrected in order to "hide his age". Yet, with the passport and PAN card corroborating the birth date and hence his story, there is no certainty. Kurt Kaschke, president of European Masters Athletics, expressed the difficulty with proving ages of people in a certain age group. In a letter to Ken Stone, editor and founder of MasterTrack, Kaschke outlined some of the difficulties officials face in verifying the ages of some of their oldest runners: "Was a birth certificate valid if the original no longer existed? What should be done about athletes born during the First or Second World War, when many records were destroyed? How could a birth date be proved when a government was not able to verify a birth on a particular day? Or when a country did not issue birth certificates?" This is a problem commonly faced by competitors from countries of Africa and Asia, including India.

Awards

Gudha has won more than 20 medals in national and international athletic events in his age category, including a gold medal in the Malaysian Championships in 2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gudha, Dharampal singh Indian male marathon runners Athletes from Uttar Pradesh