Some of sports’ oldest world champions
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Juan Manuel Fangio won five Formula One world championships and did it with four different teams, Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, and Maserati.
PHOTO: AUTOSPORT
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SINGAPORE – Sprightly at 55, Peter Gilchrist won his fifth World Billiards Championships on Thursday. By his acknowledgement, the Singaporean still has some way to go to match the feats of his role model Fred Davis. Here are some of the oldest world champions in other sports.
Nicholas Santos, swimming
At the 2022 Fina World Swimming Championships (25m), in Melbourne, the Brazilian, 42, won a record fourth world title in the 50m butterfly – a decade after his first – with a new championship mark of 21.78sec, just 0.03 off his own world record. He then announced his retirement.
Ronnie O’Sullivan, snooker
World No. 1 and seven-time snooker champion Ronnie O'Sullivan.
PHOTO: ST FILE
The enigmatic Englishman was 46 when he claimed his modern-era joint-record seventh World Snooker Championship in 2022 by beating Judd Trump 18-13 at the Crucible in Sheffield. He surpassed Ray Reardon, who won his last world title in 1978 aged 45. O’Sullivan turns 48 in December and is still world No. 1.
Juan Manuel Fangio, Formula 1
The Argentinian was the first to win five world titles and has done it with four different teams: Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Maserati. His last world championship was in 1957 at the age of 46. He died in 1995 from kidney failure and pneumonia.
Bernard Hopkins Junior, boxing
An American legend, Hopkins Jr held multiple world championships in two weight classes. Nicknamed the Executioner, he was 49 when he became the oldest boxer to win a world title in 2014. He retained the IBF light heavyweight title and gained the WBA (super) and IBA light heavyweight belts in a split-decision victory over Beibut Shumenov, a former Olympic champion 19 years his junior.
Fred Davis, English billiards
An eight-time World Snooker Championship winner from 1948 to 1956, and a two-time winner of the World Billiards Championship, Davis, who died in his home after a fall in 1998, remains an inspiration for Gilchrist. He said: “The late Fred Davis won the 1980 world championships when he was 67, and at the moment, there is no reason I cannot either.”
