Those 400 metres in Rome: Heartbreak that received followers over

On the eve of his historic run on the 1960 Rome Olympics, Milkha Singh was twisting and turning within the Games village. Milkha — who had completed second behind American Otis Davis within the 400m semi-final the day earlier than — was perturbed by the await the principle occasion.
“One of my strengths, which gave me an edge sometimes over my rivals was my runs in semi-finals and final on the same day. In Rome Olympics, the gap between the semi-finals and final was two days and the day after the semi-final, my whole night was spent worrying about the final,” Milkha describes the times resulting in the race within the 1977 autobiography ‘Flying Sikh’.
“The second night too, I was roaming in my room unable to sleep before (then president of Indian Athletics Federation) Umrao Singh took me to the markets of Rome and talking about my life and wins.”
In the ultimate, Milkha was drawn within the fifth lane. Completing the line-up had been Germany’s Carl Kauffman within the first lane, Americans Earl Young and Otis Davis within the second and third lanes, South African Malcolm Spence within the fourth, and one other German Manfred Kinder within the sixth lane.
The hard-run contest is chronicled within the footage from the Olympic archives. Milkha was behind Kinder and forward of Spence within the first 100m, earlier than taking the lead on the primary curve. Running on the within lanes, Davis and Kaufman coated the hole and handed the Indian. The remaining 150m noticed Milkha lose pace and — on the ultimate flip and within the remaining second — the third place to Spence.
Gold medallist Davis set a world document of 44.9 seconds. Kauffman clocked 44.90. Milkha broke the nationwide document however misplaced the bronze medal to Spence by 0.1 seconds; his timing of 45.6 falling wanting South African’s 45.5 in a photo-finish.
“I caught up to the leader in the first 150m of the race and I was running with more speed in the initial 200m,” writes Milkha in his memoir.
“At that moment, I stopped a little to see behind and that saw Davis and Kaufman edging past me and later Spence too crossing me. I made a final dash but that was not enough as Spence was running between the leaders and it benefited him. Even the first finish was a photo-finish and the third place was photo-finish and it was a nervous wait for all of us. I was disappointed that I could not win the medal which was expected from me. Whenever I remember that moment, my eyes are filled with tears.”