INQUIRER Sports

TOKYO -- Equestrian Hiroshi Hoketsu, 66, will become the oldest Japanese to compete in the Olympics when he climbs into the saddle in Beijing in August.

The retired corporate chief will be one of the three members in Japan's dressage team at the Beijing Games, by which time he will be 67 for what will be only his second Olympics in 44 years, the Japan Equestrian Federation said.

"I feel relieved for now. If you have a goal, you can stay a bit young," Hoketsu, fondly dubbed by media as the "hope of old men," told Japanese media.

"It would be good if people of my generation felt the same way."

Before Hoketsu, the oldest Japanese Olympian was Kikuko Inoue, a grandmother of five, who competed in the dressage at the 1988 Seoul Games aged 63.

Swedish shooter Oscar Swahn is the oldest ever Olympic competitor. He took part in the 1920 Antwerp Games at the age of 72, winning silver in the running deer double-shot team event for his sixth Olympic medal.

Hoketsu's selection will become formal when the International Equestrian Federation announces the qualified dressage teams on Tuesday, the Japanese organization said.

At the recent Asia-Oceania team dressage trials, Australia scored 196.167 against 194.792 for Japan and 177.875 for New Zealand. The top two teams qualify for Beijing and Hoketsu scored the highest points among the Japanese.

Hoketsu started horse riding at age 12 and continued practicing at an equestrian club near Tokyo while working at a US-affiliated pharmaceutical firm.

At age 23, he finished 40th in showjumping at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, while he was picked as a substitute for the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

He was forced to withdraw from the 1988 Seoul Olympics because his horse had a quarantine problem.

He retired from the drug firm as its president and has lived in Germany since 2003 to train.