A little history

At the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Chinmoy spent many hours each day on the sports field and became a star athlete. He was the Ashram's champion runner for sixteen and a half consecutive years, 1944-1960. At the annual Ashram Sports Day, he used to compete in 18 or 19 different items and after the formal decathlon was introduced, he won the decathlon trophy in 1958 and 1959.

In 1951 the Ashram acquired a Sports Ground and put in a cinder track. Like most of the other athletes, Chinmoy ran in bare feet, which makes his 100-metre timing of 11.7 seconds even more remarkable.

Prior to 1951, running races were held on the roads around in the small hours of the morning when there was no traffic. Mostly the venue was the Beach Road. At that time, there were no lanes. Later, when the cinder track was built, four lanes were marked.

When Chinmoy ran, he used to hold his breath and let it out in a faint hum akin to a bumble-bee.