When Sarwan Singh won gold in the 110m hurdles at the 1954 Asian Games, he seemed destined for greatness. For him, those 14.7 seconds he took to complete the race are the best of his life by his own admission. It was his first international event and a glorious career seemed in the making.
But fate had other plans and reality struck down hard. When he retired from service in the Bengal Engineering Group in 1970, hard times came onto him. 20 years of driving a taxi in Ambala, nowhere close to family and friends.
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At 70 he was finally given a pension of Rs 1500, which was barely enough to feed him and make ends meet. As a result, he had to take up the job of a worker and also resorted to begging at times.
Eventually, he had to sell his medal to get by which just shows how pathetic his state had become.
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Sadly he is not alone in this category of forgotten athletes, but his story might just be the most painful. He has long been lost in the pages of history and it is tragic that a once promising athlete has been reduced to a beggar by the neglect of the very nation he was once so happy to represent and win a gold medal for.