Yul Kwon rises at 6am and starts his day with stretches and a fitness regimen that includes planking for 60 to 90 seconds, 50 sit-ups, 50 squats, and standing on one leg for a minute and then the other – twice. He then eats a banana and, every other day, he heads out for a 10km (6.2-mile) run.
That is an impressive regular warm-up for a 90-year-old.
“Health is most important, so I put priority on my daily exercise,” says the sprightly Korean-Canadian, a retired economics professor living in Vancouver, Canada.
The nonagenarian ran the BMO Vancouver Half Marathon in May, in three hours, 50 minutes and 33 seconds. He was disappointed to discover that he came last in the 85-89 age group as there was no 90-plus division.
Kwon said to a local newspaper that it was unfair for someone in their nineties to compete against runners in their eighties, and he asked the marathon organisers to consider opening a new age category for him. They obliged.
Fitness has been a big part of Kwon’s life since his mid-forties when he took up tennis, although he had to stop playing after developing tennis elbow.