102-Year-Old Mann Kaur Is Set To Rep India At The World Master Games

Everyone hopes to grow old gracefully, to be strong, sharp and capable til the end of their days. Many unfortunately don’t get that dream but for some age really is just a number. For Mann Kaur, the 101-year-old great grandmother from Chandigarh, the word elderly doesn’t seem to apply. She astounded the world last year by running at the American Masters Games and winning 3 gold medals in her age class (she may have been the only one in the race but it still counts!) and this year she’s set her sights higher and is all set to compete in the World Master Games.

The World Masters are commonly referred to as the Senior Olympics and around 18,000 people from around the world will be vying for the gold. While this may seem intimidating to some, she’s no novice to athletics though and was introduced to the world of competitive sports at the young(ish) age of 93. She’d clearly found her calling and after only 2 years of training she was sprinting ahead of everyone in her age group. This year she’s going to branch out and at the World Masters will compete in the 100m, 200m, Shot put and Javelin events.

For the last five months, she and her 79-year-old son Gurdev Singh have been gearing up for the competition by training at Punjabi University, Patiala. Gurdev himself, a Candadian passport holder, will be representing his adopted in the games and will be competing alongside his mother. Together they’ve been hitting the gym and bringing down their times, as he told Hindustan Times, “Now she is clocking 1 minute, 10 seconds. If all goes well, we will further reduce the timing by four-five seconds.”

Her dedication and drive puts most of us to shame and perhaps we need to remember her next time we skip a work out or spend the day vegging out in front of the TV. Hopefully this is only the beginning of Mann Kaur’s sporting legacy, this remarkable woman is an inspiration to us all and we can’t wait to see what she has in store for us.