Congratulations to everyone who was
involved the biggest ever Edinburgh Marathon on the
12 th June. Huge thanks go to the 1000+ volunteers who
made the event run so smoothly.
UK, June 14, 2005
Source:News.Scotman
MICHAEL BLACKLEY
Key points
• Edinburgh Marathon a big success in its third
year
• Among contestants are four Sikhs...
• with combined age of 397!
Key quote
"By running as the oldest ever marathon relay
team, I hope we will inspire young people to keep
going and older people never to give up." - Fauja
Singh
Story in full
THE world's oldest marathon runner and a Darfur refugee
who has been refused asylum status in Britain were
among the 11,000 taking part in yesterday's Edinburgh
Marathon.
NRI (non-resident Indian) Fauja Singh, a 94-year-old
father of four and grandfather of 13 from Punjab in
India, successfully completed the race, which is in
its third year.
The main event, which involved 6,000 runners from
45 countries, was won by the 25-year-old Kenyan Zachary
Kihara. Cambuslang Harriers' Robert Gilroy was the
first British runner across the line, and the first
female was Russian favourite Zinaida Semenova, with
Aberdeen-born Shona Crombie Hicks in second.
But it was the 5,000 who took part in the relay marathon
that received much of the attention.
NRI, Fauja Singh and his team of five runners, competing
under the name Sikhs in the City, boasted a combined
age of 397. He said: "I am extremely honoured
to have been invited to start this year's Edinburgh
Marathon. By running as the oldest ever marathon relay
team, I hope we will inspire young people to keep
going and older people never to give up."
Organisers said the event raised £1.5 million
for more than 100 good causes, as well as generating
an estimated £1 million for the local economy.
The Protect Darfur campaign also put forward a team
for the relay marathon, which included Anwar Bakar,
a 24-year-old Darfur man who has been refused asylum
in the UK and told it is safe to return.
He used the marathon as a means of raising awareness
of the campaign, and called on the government to understand
that his people, the Fur, could be wiped out. He said:
"They [the Janjaweed militia] will keep doing
this. As soon as they know you are Fur, they kill
you immediately. They will wipe out our whole race.
"They want to be in power. They just imagine
that we are an idiot people, that we are just ignorant,
that we shouldn't have anything to do with them because
we are a weak people."
He has been told by immigration officers that he
would be safe in Khartoum, but that is a claim that
he strongly denies. He said: "How can somebody
from here send me to Khartoum when that will happen
to me?"
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