No age limit on hoaxes: ‘116-year-old’ sprinter back in the news
What’s the payoff for Dharmapal? Who’s using him?
Here’s the story for hoots and archival hollers:
KITAKAMI, Iwate Prefecture–An Indian who claims to be 116 years old, and thus the world’s oldest man, wants to take part in an international athletics competition to be held here this month.
The man submitted an application to the 18th Asia Masters Athletics Championships, which will run from Sept. 19 to 23.
The entry form says he is 116 years old, five years older than Sakari Momoi, a 111-year-old Saitama resident who is currently recognized as the world’s oldest man by Guinness World Records.
“He looks a far cry from 116 years old in the photo,” Kiyoshi Konoike, the chairman of Japan Masters Athletics, which will host the competition, said during a news conference on Sept. 4. “If (the man’s age) proves authentic, it would be astonishing news.”
According to Japan Masters Athletics, a copy of the man’s Indian passport attached to the entry form said he was born on Oct. 6, 1897. It added that the Japanese Foreign Ministry has authenticated the passport.
Japan Masters Athletics revealed the same day that it will not officially recognize the man’s record unless his age is certified by Guinness World Records.
A similar event was held in India in February, and a local newspaper reported that the man ran 200 meters in 46.74 seconds in the 100-year-old and over category, shedding over 30 seconds off the world record.
Indian athletics officials have not replied to the organization’s inquiries about whether the man’s record and age have been officially recognized as world records.
As I noted in a comment last March:
Winston Thomas, secretary of WMA, tells me:
“He has a passport that shows he is 116 but it is not accepted as proof of his actual age, as Passports are granted regardless of of proof of age, so he is classed as 85+.
“I have seen him running for the past 3 years and I do not consider him to be 116 and I do believe that as the oldest person shown by the Indian Government is 117 and he is not mentioned in the 116 age group the the government know nothing about him, and I find that strange.
“So far WMA have not had any records submitted for him as far as I am aware.
“And I believe that the MAFI will not select him until they can concretely prove his age and this has not so far be substantiated.”
Later, I wrote:
Winston Thomas says he received this note from an Indian source, suggesting the sprinter is 99:
“This athlete produced copy of passport and voter identity card which mentions the date of birth as October 6th , 1914. These athletes are generally born in their village home and there was no practice of registration of birth at that time. Hence we have to depend on documents produced by them. To be more authentic we have to get a scan done by a doctor and find out the age on the basis of bone structure etc. which is not generally done. Hence we go by the documents produced by them.”
So maybe the real perpetrator isn’t Mr. 116 but his Indian enablers. What’s in it for India — movie rights?
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