Mumbai: Legendary sprinter Milkha Singh has passed away at the age of 91, a month after contracting COVID19.
Singh breathed his last on Friday night, two days after he was taken out of the COVID Intensive Care Unit at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh.
Singh had developed complications, which included fever and falling oxygen saturation levels. The 91-year-old, who contracted COVID-19 last month, had tested negative for the virus on Wednesday.
A statement issued by Singh’s family said, “It is with great sadness to inform that Milkha Singh Ji passed away on 18th June 2021 at 11:30 pm.”
The statement further read, “He struggled a lot but God has his ways and perhaps it was with true love and companionship that both our mother Nirmal Ji and now father passed away within 5 days.”
Milkha’s 85-year-old wife Nirmal Kaur, who was also infected with the virus, died at a private hospital in Mohali on Sunday.
Kaur was the former captain of the national women’s volleyball team. After a week of treatment at Fortis Hospital in Mohali, Milkha was admitted to PGIMER on June 3 after the oxygen level at home dropped.
The legendary athlete is a four-time Asian Games gold medalist and 1958 Commonwealth Games champion, but his greatest performance was fourth in the 400m final of the 1960 Rome Olympics.
He also represented India in the 1956 and 1964 Olympics and was awarded the Padma Shri in 1959.
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