Golden girl: Itooka, seen here celebrating her 116th birthday in Ashiya city, Hyogo prefecture, was born on May 23, 1908. This makes her the oldest living person, according to the Gerontology Research Group. — AFP
A 116-YEAR-OLD Japanese woman who used to be a mountaineer is set to be named the world’s oldest person by the Guinness World Records, a research group said, following the death of a 117-year-old Spanish woman earlier this week.
Tomiko Itooka, who was born on May 23, 1908, lives in the western Japanese city of Ashiya, the US-based Gerontology Research Group said.
She is next in line for the title of world’s oldest person after Maria Branyas Morera died in a Spanish nursing home on Monday, according to the group.
Itooka, a mother-of-three, was born in the year when a long- distance radio message was sent from the Eiffel Tower for the first time, and when the Wright Brothers made their first public flights in Europe and America. — Reuters
