84-year-old Canadian becomes oldest person to run Antarctic marathon

An 84-year-old Canadian man named Roy Jorgen Svenningsen became the oldest person ever to finish running the Antarctic Ice Marathon on Friday, CTV reported on Monday.

It took Svenningsen 11 hours and 41 minutes to finish the race.

Svenningsen, a retired oil worker, is from the Canadian city of Edmonton, and he has been running since 1964. He spent a year training for Friday's 42-km running.

The Antarctic Ice Marathon is the planet's southernmost race and is considered one of the toughest. For an entry fee of 24,800 Canadian dollars (about 19,000 U.S. dollars), participants are flown to and from Antarctica via Chile's southernmost airport, fed and lodged in tented accommodations.

(Cover: Photo taken on Feb. 15, 2019 shows icebergs in waters near the West Ice Shelf in Antarctica.)

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)