TOKYO: A 116-year-old Japanese woman, Tomiko Itooka, is poised to be recognized as the world’s oldest person by Guinness World Records, following the death of 117-year-old Spanish woman Maria Branyas Morera.
The announcement was made by the US-based Gerontology Research Group on Wednesday.
Born on May 23, 1908, in Ashiya, a city in western Japan, Ms. Itooka is set to claim the title once held by Morera, who passed away in a Spanish nursing home earlier this week.
Ms. Itooka, a mother of three, was born in the same year that saw the first long-distance radio transmission from the Eiffel Tower and the Wright Brothers’ first public flights in Europe and the US.
In her 70s, she continued to pursue mountaineering, notably climbing Japan’s 3,067-meter (10,062-foot) Mount Ontake twice, surprising her guide by doing so in sneakers rather than hiking boots. At the age of 100, she ascended the stone steps of Japan’s Ashiya Shrine without the aid of a cane.
