JAPAN: RUGBY UNION - Ninety-year old Japanese amateur Sadayoshi Morita becomes the oldest rugby player in the world.

Record ID: 468020

  • Title: JAPAN: RUGBY UNION - Ninety-year old Japanese amateur Sadayoshi Morita becomes the oldest rugby player in the world.
  • Date: 30th November 2005
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) UNIDENTIFIED JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT SAYING: "Considering his age, he plays rugby extraordinarily well." (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) ANOTHER UNIDENTIFIED JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT SAYING: "I would like to be as good as he is (at his age)"
  • Embargoed: 15th December 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: People,Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVABU1U73ZO5WMDJNNZV6LKFU8L1
  • Story Text: Sadayoshi (Pronounced SAH-DAH-YOH-SHEE) Morita (MOH-REE-TAH) has been in training for rugby matches at least three times a week for the past 70 years.
    The 90-year-old Japanese man, originally from the southern island of Kyushu, has been playing rugby for most of his life, barring the three years he was conscripted by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War Two. Morita, who turned 90 early in November, was recognised by the Senior World Rugby Championship as the world's oldest practicing rugby player.
    He hopes to play for sometime longer, but admits it's not getting any easier.
    "It is extraordinary tough for 90-year old guy to run at top speed. But you must get over it to enjoy playing rugby. If it weren't for the sprints in this game, I would be able to play rugby until I was 110 years old," Morita told Reuters after an hour's practice in a Tokyo park near his current residence. Morita still walks for over two hours at at time, four times a week to tone his muscles.
    Morita discovered rugby at the age of 19 at a local match in Fukuoka prefecture. Fascinated by the sport - which was then still very new in Japan in 1934, he joined the rugby team of his university.
    Morita played for his company's rugby team after that and lead the Yahata Steel team to three straight championships in Japan's Industrial League from 1950 to 1952.
    At 39, he retired from the team but could not abandon the game for long and joined a league for over 40s. At the age of 80, he returned to the rugby field even after falling out of tree -- an accident which left him wheelchair-bound for three months.
    His secret is just to keep fit and eat alot.
    "The secret is to play a lot of sports and eat alot, that is the secret of my fine playing," Morita, clad in the Japanese National Rugby uniform, told Reuters on the side-line of a Senior Championship tournament in his home town of Fukuoka.
    His energy surprises all, even usually energetic junior high-school students "Considering his age, he plays rugby extraordinarily well," a Japanese teenager said. "I would like to be as good as he is (at his age)," said another.
    Morita has no plan to quit his favorite sport until he is at least 95-years old. Then, he says, he will concentrate on his second most favorite sport, golf -- because that does not require him to run at full speed all the time.
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