It has been nearly half a century since Japanese Hiroshi Hoketsu first participated in an Olympic Games. Now,aged 70,he has set his sights on the London Olympics after qualifying as part of Japans dressage team last week. Hoketsu,whose first Games were the 1964 Tokyo Olympics in his home country where he competed as a showjumper,will be the oldest Olympian in London. He has already claimed that title for the Beijing 2008 Games. At the age of 35,he had decided to change to dressage but did not qualify for the Olympics again until 1988,where quarantine problems with his horse meant he was unable to compete in Seoul. He did make it to Beijing in 2008 where he finished tied for 34th place. Last week he qualified for London by winning an international dressage competition in France,and on Monday was chosen by Japanese equestrian officials to ride in London for the national team. I am glad that Im 70 now and still I can ride and I think with this dressage sports,because Im doing the dressage sports,I could continue to my age and in that sense I think I feel the sport is very good for the elderly people, Hoketsu said in the German town of Aachen where he has been training and living for the past nine years. When Hoketsu,whose diet is less strict than other athletes and includes a glass of wine in the evening,takes to the arena in London this summer aged 71,he will narrowly miss out on beating the record for the oldest ever Olympian. Swedish shooter Oscar Swahn,who picked up his sixth medal in the 1920 Antwerp Games,was aged 72 years and 280 days. Hoketsu,however,has no plans to beat that record with an appearance in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games. I dont think so. I think I am quite sure it is going to be my last Olympics. I wont say Ill stop riding after the Olympics,but I think to compete in the Olympics,its going to be the last, he told.
