Milkha Singh sees similarity in Bolt and legendary Owens

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Bengaluru, August 7: Even at the age of 87 years he did not sleep early at night on Saturday which he does generally nowadays. He was sitting in front of television till midnight to watch the farewell run of Usain Bolt in the World Championship, being held in London. He is legendary Indian middle-distance runner Milkha Singh.

Speaking on Usain Bolt's defeat at the hands of Justin Gatlin in his last sprint, Milkha said over phone from his residence in new Delhi, "With the retirement of Bolt, an era came to an end no doubt, but in his good bye run, I expected Bolt would have the last laugh. I became little bit sad with his last show."

Milkha did not hesitate to reveal that he is one of the fans of Bolt. Explaining the reason, the former Asian Games gold medal winner said, "After a long time I found one runner whose technique had a similarity with legendary sprinter Jesse Owens."

"Owens also did not have the burst up in the start, but after 10 to 15 meters, the speed he could generate with his long stride was simply mesmerizing."

"Bolt also did not have the generation of speed in the beginning of the 100 meters. Still his all his gold medals had been earned through the magnificent runs in the last 50 meters."

"I can also find the similarity between the two great runners in the movement of their hands. Both the sprinters had high swing of hands and straight while running."

Milkha still remembers one of his most memorable incidents in 1950 Tokyo Olympics where he had the opportunity to shake hands with Owens who was one of the guests in that Olympics.

Milkha said, "Owen was chief guest in the sprint and in the 400 meters run. After the completion of middle-distance running, all on a sudden I found him beside the track and rushed to him for autograph."

"He was so humble and affable that despite being such a great he did not hesitate to give me autograph and shake hands with me."