< Marriage and the NPR ethics rules | Main | The hug >

Another birth certificate controversy

Posted at 12:59 PM on October 24, 2011 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

Nobody denies that Fauja Singh is old. Really old. Too old for most people to run marathons.

But the Guinness Book of Records isn't going to recognize his finish in the Toronto marathon a week ago because he can't produce a birth certificate to prove he was born in 1911.

India didn't keep birth records in 1911. Singh has a passport showing is birth date, and a letter from Queen Elizabeth congratulating him on his 100th birthday, but Guinness says that's not good enough.

Singh finished the marathon in a little over eight hours.

Comments (4)

I'll bet that Mr. Singh is old enough and wise enough to not give a flying copulation about what some official record keepers think.

Posted by Jim Shapiro | October 24, 2011 1:09 PM

My recollection is that the record for "oldest living person" is constantly disputed by people who are clearly old, and not able to produce birth certificates...

Though records from 100 years ago were kept differently then they are now... who wants to bet my birth certificate will be difficult to access (have to go to the legacy computer system?) when I'm that old.

Posted by Jon | October 24, 2011 1:41 PM

He looks 100 to me! Can't they just cut him some slack?

Posted by Heather | October 24, 2011 4:29 PM

Can't they just cut off a limb and count the limbs like a tree? I'm kidding, but there has to be SOME way to prove it.

Posted by Bench | October 24, 2011 6:19 PM