Another birth certificate controversy

ap_marathoner.jpg

Nobody denies that Fauja Singh is old. Really old. Too old for most people to run marathons.

But the Guinness Book of Records isn’t going to recognize his finish in the Toronto marathon a week ago because he can’t produce a birth certificate to prove he was born in 1911.

India didn’t keep birth records in 1911. Singh has a passport showing is birth date, and a letter from Queen Elizabeth congratulating him on his 100th birthday, but Guinness says that’s not good enough.

Singh finished the marathon in a little over eight hours.