The Miss Universe beauty pageant has become more competitive with organizers opening it to more contestants.
Junko Sakai vied to represent Japan in this year’s national edition of the contest and made it among the 42 finalists in July, Asahi Shimbun reports. The 66-year-old grandmother from Tokyo, however, inevitably lost to her younger rivals.
Nevertheless, Sakai competed and won the Mrs. Universe Japan division for 60 and older contestants, according to Asahi Shimbun.
Not to be outdone, compatriot Kokichi Akuzawa embarked on a more daring adventure and proved that he could still do something incredible despite his age.
Akuzawa trained for three months before climbing Japan’s highest peak, the 12,388-foot Mount Fuji, reaching the top on 5 August, Associated Press (AP) reports.
He struggled to summit but nevertheless achieved the goal at the age of 102 with the help of his 70-year-old daughter, her husband, and friends, according to AP.
The former livestock artificial inseminator earned a Guinness World Record for becoming the oldest person ever to climb to the summit of Mount Fuji for the second time.
Akuzawa first summited Mount Fuji at the younger age of 96 that also set a world record for the oldest person to reach the top of the world’s 35th highest mountain.
AloJapan.com