Forty but limitless

Age is just a number but passion is eternal!

Forty is a very tricky age. It’s the time most people are busy coming to terms with ailments, getting their kids married off or working round the clock to save up for retirement.

And being a woman makes it all the more annoying as that’s the age when your hormones decide to go on strike, create mayhem and introduce you to something called mood swings, if you haven’t experienced it before!

For a sportsperson, the biggest worry at 40 is to remain fit. And a bigger challenge is to sustain his or her longevity. The simple yet most effective principle to follow is to “train like a pro and rest like an amateur.”

Athletes, especially women, have defied age time and again to carve their own niche. In 2008, American Darra Torres, then 41, created history by becoming the first woman to swim in the Olympics (post 40). Merlene Ottey went one step further! She anchored the Slovenian 4x100m relay team at the 2012 European Athletics Championships at the age of 52. In fact in 2011, Premlata Agarwal, mother of two, became the oldest Indian woman ever (at 45) to scale the Mt Everest.

These are just a few passing examples.

The most famous of all is Martina Navratilova. She is not only the oldest Grand Slam champion in the history of tennis but is also the oldest to win a professional singles match. Now, she has a worthy successor in the form of Kimiko Date-Krumm.

The Japanese has always been an intriguing personality. After announcing retirement at 26, she stunned one and all by making an unexpected comeback 12 years later. In becoming the oldest woman (at 42) to win a main draw match at the Australian open, the veteran entered the record books on Tuesday.

It was a convincing win for Date-Krumm who beat 12th seed Nadia Pedrova in straight sets. She is just a few years away (five to be precise) from breaking Navratilova’s record. The target is very much achievable. You bet.