The man thought to be the world’s oldest marathon runner will sign off from the distance at the age of 101 on Sunday.

Fauja Singh, of Goodmayes, will compete in his sixth and likely to be final London Marathon with the help of his trusted trainer, Harmander Singh, 52, of Wellesley Road, Ilford, who is running the race for the 28th consecutive year.

Harmander said: “Fauja always said he would like to sign off with his hometown and he promised last year he would run the London Marathon in 2012.

“We believe around the world he’s the only long-distance runner in his 100s.

“He was the oldest runner of the London Marathon when he last competed in 2004.”

Bookies William Hill will pay �200 to Prostate Cancer Charity and Breast Cancer Care should Fauja finish and �1,000 should he beat his time of eight hours 25 minutes at last year’s Toronto marathon.

Harmander, who runs the Sikhs in the City running group and who will run alongside Fauja, hoped they could do it in eight hours. He believes his own appearance in consecutive London Marathons is also a Redbridge record. He said: “A marathon isn’t easy, even though I tell people when training that it is, you have to respect the distance.”

Fauja got a head start by taking part in the Newham Classic 10km run on Sunday where he met Olympic gold-medal winning athlete Tessa Sanderson.