Nagpur, June 19
Legendary athlete Milkha Singh who passed away on Wednesday night due to Covid-19 related complications had visited Orange City on two occasions and city's retired teacher from Saraswati Vidyalaya Chandrakant Virkhare was mainly instrumental in bringing him to the city on both occasions.
On November 27, 2016, 'Flying Sikh' Milkha Singh flagged off the Mazee Metro Nagpur Marathon at LIT College ground and prior to that way back in 1985 he visited Nagpur for National Veteran'sAthletics Championship.
While sharing his experiences with India's biggest sporting icon Virkhare said, he worked with him for ten years to promote veteran's athletics in the country. From 1991 to 2000 being the secretary of All IndiaVeteran's athletics Association he had given me some responsibilities. As a person, he was very simple and straight forward. I had very cordial relations with him and his family. He never ran behind awards and fame".
Virkhare said Milkha Singh was physically fit and the Nagpurians had experienced it when he was invited as chief guest to flag off the marathon. " He always used to motivate the people to keep them fit. In fact ' Keep Fit' was his slogan".
Speaking about the personality of the legendary athlete Virkhare said, " The main quality of Milkha Singh was that he used to remember the people. Whenever I used to go for the nationals as Vidarbha unit secretary, he used to spend some time with me to discuss the issues".
In 1998 Milkha Singh inspected Police Line Takli ground for the veteran's national athletic meet. Virkhare said Milkha Singh sent him to Hongkong as the manager of the Indian team for the international Veterans Championship.
Virkhare signed off by saying that Milkha was a wonderful person who contributed to sports till his last breath.