100-year-old Breaks Sprint World Record

A South African pensioner nicknamed Flying Phil became the world's fastest 100-year-old at the weekend when he broke the record for centenarian sprinting.

Philip Rabinowitz entered the Guinness Book of World Records by clocking 30.86 seconds over 100 metres, demolishing the previous record of 36.19 set by the Austrian Erwin Jaskulski.

"Oh I feel wonderful now, absolutely wonderful," Mr Rabinowitz told reporters.

"I don't know how long it is going to be like this. Every time I go, I break my own record. I get younger and younger."

He ran a faster time a week earlier but it was not verified because of a faulty timer, so Mr Rabinowitz, who turned 100 in February, tried again at Cape Town's Green Point stadium.

Dozens of spectators cheered him to the finish, where he was greeted by a coach who took his pulse.

"I feel like I could break another record," Mr Rabinowitz told the South African Sunday Times.

"I'm not quitting any time soon. As long as I can get up in the morning I will run and walk."

The secret of fitness and longevity, said the man who is also known as Rabinoblitz, was freshly squeezed orange juice before breakfast, an apple after each meal, and lots of walking.

He walks about four miles daily to his daughter's dog-food factory, where he does the accounts, and stretches that to six miles during weekends.

Already the world's oldest competitive walker, earlier this year he helped to carry the Olympic torch on the South African leg of its journey to Athens.

The world's fastest human remains Tim Montgomery, an American who ran the 100 metres in 9.78 seconds in 2002.