A 111-year-old former engineer in the UK is set to be confirmed as the world’s oldest man after the recent death of a Japanese man who was 112, according to media reports on Thursday.
Bob Weighton, who was born on March 29, 1908, is expected to be named as the new record-holder following the death of Chitetsu Watanabe on Sunday, the BBC reported.
The 112-year-old Watanabe died just days after being awarded a Guinness World Records certificate.
Weighton said: “I don't really feel satisfied because it means someone else has died.”
A spokesman for Guinness World Records said it was currently investigating the title for the oldest living man following the death of Watanabe.
“Further information will follow soon upon confirmation of the next record-holder,” the spokesman said.
Weighton, who turns 112 next month, can now expect to receive a certificate of his own, Sky News quoted him as saying.
On his 111th birthday, Weighton put his long life down to “avoiding dying”.
Weighton, who grew up in Hull, said: "I just accept it as a fact. It's not something I ever intended, wanted or worked for but it's just one of those facts of life.
“You might find it amazing but it’s just one of those things.” He was formerly both England’s oldest man and Britain’s joint oldest man until Alfred Smith from Perthshire, who shared the same birthday, died last summer.
Weighton shares the title of Britain’s oldest person with Joan Hocquard, from Dorset she, Weighton and Smith were all born on 29 March 1908.
Weighton, who worked as an engineer, spending time in Taiwan, Japan and Canada, now lives in a flat in a care complex at Alton.
There are about 50 women who are older than Britain's record-holders - the world's oldest living person is 117-year-old Kane Tanaka, the report said.
