#3 Milkha Singh in Rome, Italy, 1960
Milkha Singh, ‘The Flying Sikh’ finished ‘Men’s 400 m’ finals in fourth position with a timing of 45.6 secs and lost the bronze medal by just 0.1 sec to Malcolm Spence of South Africa who clocked 45.5 secs. This was one of biggest regret in Indian sporting history and arguably the most disappointed moment till now in Indian track and field history. Milkha was tipped to win a medal and was seen as the only challenger to Otis Davis of US.
He led the first 250 m of the race but just slowed down to see his fellow competitors and this error cost him the race. "Since it was a photo finish, the announcements were held up. The suspense was excruciating. I knew what my fatal error was: After running perilously fast in lane five, I slowed down at 250 meters. I could not cover the lost ground after that -- and that cost me the race. After the death of my parents, that is my worst memory. I kept crying for days," Singh said. In fact, Singh almost gave up sport after this defeat but after a lot of persuasion, he took the track again to win two gold medals in 1962 Asiad. By then he was much beyond his prime.
