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Guinness won’t recognize Fauja Singh’s record
October 24, 2011Guinness World Records says it won’t recognize 100-year-old Fauja Singh’s claim to be the world’s oldest marathon runner.
Singh, who lives in England, recently completed the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon in 8:25. Guinness, however, says it can’t ratify Singh’s claim to be the oldest marathon runner because Singh cannot produce a birth certificate from 1911.
According to the BBC, Sing’s British passport shows his date of birth as April 1, 1911. He also received a letter from the Queen on his 100th birthday, and has shown both of these documents to Guinness. Officials at Guinness say the documents are not sufficient proof of his age.
The problem for Singh is that the Indian government did not keep birth records in 1911. Singh has presented Guinness with a letter from the Indian government to that effect, as well as a statement from a former neighbour in India, but Guinness claims it’s still not enough evidence.
Craig Glenday, editor-in-chief of Guinness World Records, told the BBC, “We would love to give him the record. We’d love to say this is a true Guinness World Record, but the problem is there is just no evidence. We can only accept official birth documents created in the year of the birth. Anything else is really not very useful to us.”
