Man Kaur
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Sardarni Man(n) Kaur (born March 1, 1916) is an Indian track-and-field athlete. She holds the world records in the Over-100 years old categories for a variety of events. When she was 103 she was given the Nari Shakti Puraskar award by the President of India.
Life
Mann Kaur is about five feet tall and only speaks Punjabi,[1] but she has won multiple gold medals at the World Masters Athletics Championships.[2][3][4]
Although she did not take up athletics until she was 93. In 2016 she became fasted centenarian at a competition in the American Masters Game.[5]
In anticipation of the 2017 World Masters Games, Kaur trained regularly at Punjabi University, in hopes of improving upon her own world record which she set over the years. Her coach was her son Gurdev Singh, age 79.[6] At the 2017 games in Auckland she completed the 100 metre sprint in 74 seconds.[1]
In 2019 she competed in Poland winning four events in her category - shot put, 60m sprint, 200m and the javelin. She completed the 60m race in 36 seconds and "felt great" afterwards. After this she and Gurdev were invited to tour universities in Baru Sahib where they inspired students when they spoke about their achievements and the diet they follow. The diet includes nuts and pulses, their own soy milk, kefir, wheatgrass juice, and sprouted wheat which they make into chapatis.[1]
On 8 March (International Women's Day) 2020 she was given the Nari Shakti Puraskar award. The award was made at the Presidential palace in New Delhi by the President of India with the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, in attendance. She is nicknamed the "Miracle from Chandigarh".[5]
References
- ^ a b c "Whatever Happened To ... The 101-Year-Old Champion Runner From India?". NPR.org. Retrieved 2020-05-12.
- ^ "Man Kaur, 100-year-old runner from India, wins gold medal at Masters Games". The Indian Express. Retrieved 2017-04-30.
- ^ "Man Kaur, oldest athlete at World Masters Games, now Auckland's oldest skywalker". stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 2017-04-30.
- ^ "101-Year-Old Wins Four Gold Medals at the World Masters Games". runnersworld.com. Retrieved 2017-04-30.
- ^ a b "Lady mason, centenarian athlete among 15 women conferred Nari Shakti Awards". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 2020-04-10.
- ^ "101-year-old athlete Mann Kaur sets world record to win World Masters gold". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 2017-04-30.