Buatin with his certificate of completion after conquering Mount Kinabalu.
A video of Buatin Blandong, 90, scaling Mount Kinabalu in Sabah has gone viral. In the video, which was believed to have been recorded and shared by a mountain guide, Buatin can be heard saying he wants to break his own record. Is this true?
Verdict:
TRUE
Recently, the former Sabah State Railway Department employee broke a record he "accidentally" created in 2015 when he was 83 by once again becoming the nation’s oldest man to scale Mount Kinabalu.
“Back in 2015, I climbed Mount Kinabalu and after returning home, I found that news of me successfully completing the hike as the oldest Malaysian was in almost every local newspaper,” Buatin said.
“I did not think of creating any record during that time but when the papers mentioned my achievement, I vowed to do it again to break my own record,” he added when met at the house of one of his children in Putatan on Wednesday (Sept 7).
Buatin managed to reach the summit at 2.20pm on Sept 5, and made it down to the starting point at Timpohon Gate at 6.15pm the next day.
He said although the time taken to complete this climb was longer than the average climber, it did not matter because he made it.
He wants his achievement to encourage more Sabahans to try scaling Mount Kinabalu, and do things which they think they cannot achieve.
Reference:
Uh-oh! Daily quota reached.
