Hiromu Inada, 87, already has a certificate on his wall that confirms his status as the world’s oldest Ironman, but the Japanese man is still pounding away on his training bike and hopes to continue competing into his 90s.
In 2018 at the age of 85 years and 328 days, Inada went to Kailua-Kona in Hawaii and set a new mark for the oldest person to complete the world championship Ironman — a feat beyond most people decades younger than him.
The cancelation of this October’s Ironman because of the COVID-19 pandemic has not dulled his ambition, and Inada is maintaining his grueling training schedule for a return to Hawaii next year.
Photo: Reuters
“My goal is next year’s world championship in Hawaii,” he said at his training facility in Chiba, east of Tokyo.
“I will absolutely participate in it, and I absolutely want to break the world record of completing the race at the oldest age again. This is my current and biggest goal,” he said.
An Ironman race is widely considered one of the toughest endurance events in sports, requiring athletes to swim 3.86km, bike 180.25km and run a full 42.19km marathon.
Slender and tanned from hours training outside, Inada looks like a man who has been competing in endurance tests all his life, but he only took up the sport in retirement.
After working for public broadcaster NHK, Inada began swimming and running, and bought a bike age 69. He competed in his first triathlon a year later.
After the death of his wife soon afterwards, Ironman competitions became an obsession for Inada.
In 2015, at age 82, he took part in the Hawaii Ironman, bidding to become the oldest finisher on record, but he fell just short: His time was 5 seconds too slow to be officially registered.
Inspired by support from the Hawaiian public, Inada returned the next year and completed the race in a qualifying time, earning his Guinness World Records certificate.
“Until then, I had thought I would give up if I felt I had enough of it,” Inada said.
“But since then, I have in my mind that I absolutely cannot give up, and I absolutely must complete [Ironman races], otherwise I feel sorry for those who support me,” he said.
Inada trains every day, waking up at 4:30am and hitting the swimming pool by 6am.
Inada sees the extended lead-in to his next trip to Hawaii as an opportunity to rest a sore knee and tweak his preparation technique.
“I hope I can try new things to build my fitness,” he said.
“I hope I can adjust my physical peak to the postponed race. So, I would rather think it was good that it was delayed.”
Carlos Alcaraz on Sunday fought through a second-set slump to post a roller-coaster 6-1, 2-6, 6-3 victory over Damir Dzumhur in his opening match at the Cincinnati Open. The Spaniard, playing his first tournament since losing to Jannik Sinner in the Wimbledon final, raced through the first set, but completely lost his way in the second, dropping his serve twice against the 33-year-old Bosnian. Alcaraz regained his intensity and cut down his errors in the third set as a seventh ace took him to a match point that was converted when Dzumhur fired wide. “It was just a roller coaster,” said the second
NEXT ROUND: World No. 1s Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka opened their title defenses with straight-sets wins, while Iga Swiatek and Taylor Fritz also advanced Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka got their title defenses off to smooth starts as they powered into the third round of the ATP-WTA Cincinnati Open on Saturday. The men’s and women’s top seeds, each ranked No. 1 in the world, were both competing for the first time since Wimbledon, where Sinner lifted the title and Sabalenka bowed out in the women’s semi-finals. Sinner crushed Colombian Daniel Elahi Galan 6-1, 6-1 in steamy afternoon weather, while Sabalenka beat 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova 7-5, 6-1 under the lights of the night session. Sabalenka needed 54 minutes and a service break in the final game
Taiwan’s men’s basketball team on Monday clinched a spot in the FIBA Asia Cup quarter-finals with a 78-64 win over Jordan in Saudi Arabia, securing their best finish in the tournament since placing fourth in 2013. The win was sweet revenge for Taiwan, who were denied a quarter-final spot by Jordan at the same stage of the previous Asia Cup in 2022 after blowing a nine-point lead in the final minute and losing 97-96 on a half-court buzzer-beater. “History is part of the journey,” Taiwan head coach Gianluca Tucci said when asked about the 2022 collapse of the team, who he did
Leicester City on Sunday launched their quest for an immediate return to the English Premier League with a 2-1 win at home to crisis club Sheffield Wednesday after the visitors’ supporters protested against Owls owner Dejphon Chansiri. Wednesday are under several English Football League embargoes for a range of financial breaches, with payments of wages to players and staff delayed for the past three months. Owls fans made their feelings toward Thai businessman Chansiri clear by delaying their entry to their seats and the away end was empty as the players came onto the pitch at the King Power Stadium, with a
RSS