April 6,- A 100-year-old Japanese woman has become the world's first
centenarian to complete a 1,500-metre freestyle swim, 20 years after she took
up the sport. Mieko Nagaoka took just under an hour and 16 minutes to finish
the race as the sole competitor in the 100-104-year-old category at a short
course pool in Ehime, western Japan, on Saturday."I want to
swim until I turn 105 if I can live that long," the sprightly Nagaoka told
Kyodo News.
Her achievement
is expected to be recognised by Guinness World Records, the agency reported. Admirable
though it is, Nagaoka's time is a little off the global pace; 18-year-old
American Katie Ledecky holds the women's world record for the 1,500-metre
freestyle, having clocked just 15 minutes 28.36 seconds.
Nagaoka, who
published a book last year entitled 'I'm 100 years old and the world's best active swimmer',is no stranger to the 1,500-metre race, having completed the
distance at the age of 99 in an Olympic-sized pool.Nagaoka only took up
swimming when she hit 80, one of the growing number of elderly Japanese who are
enjoying longer and healthier lives as the country ages.
There were nearly
59,000 centenarians in Japan in September last year,government figures show which means 46 out of every 100,000 people is 100 or over. Among them are
several who remain physically active long after many people have given up the
ghost.
They include
sprinter Hidekichi Miyazaki,who was 103 when he bagged the world record for
the 100-metre dash in the 100-104 age category, clocking up a respectable 29.83
seconds.His late-blooming athletic prowess has seen him dubbed "Golden
Bolt" a reference to Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt.
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