52-year old Anju Khosla becomes the oldest Indian woman to complete Ironman triathlon
New Delhi's resident Anju Khosla became the oldest Indian woman to complete Ironman triathlon - one of the toughest one-day sporting events. 52-year old Khosla completed her first full Ironman Triathlon in Carinthia, Austria, in 15 hours, 54 minutes and 54 seconds.
The triathlon event comprised of a 3.86 km swimming leg, 180.25 km bike leg followed by a marathon (42.2 km) that needed to be completed without any intervals and the wife of an army completed it successfully.
“My family is very fitness oriented; it is a vital part of our lives. It has been a gradual process through the last 10 years that has brought me to this point. Not many women take up the sport, especially in India. I was checking the records and found I am only the fifth Indian woman to complete it, and by virtue of my age, I am the oldest Indian woman to have done it.
“Age brings you experience but is also a limiting factor as my body can’t train like a 30-year-old. The average age for a triathlete is 30-35 when they peak. At 52, you can’t be doing the same so I had to break up my training sessions. But I guess I always had that athletic streak in me since childhood,” said Khosla in an interview to Hindustan Times.
Khosla revealed that she took up cycling around a decade ago and slowly perfected the other two activities into the other two disciplines when she decided to take up triathlon.
“I took to casual cycling about 10 years back. Then I got into endurance cycling. I did a non-stop ‘500 km in 24 hours’ event from Jodhpur to Jaisalmer and back. I followed it up with other
“Then in 2013, a local club