女性としてエベレスト最速登頂　香港の元教師が記録更新

【カトマンズＡＦＰ＝時事】中国・香港の元教師、曾燕紅さん（４４）が、女性としてのエベレスト最速登頂を達成した。無事下山した曾さんは３０日、ネパールの首都カトマンズに到着した。（写真はネパール・カトマンズにある空港に到着した中国・香港の元教師、曾燕紅さん）
　曾さんが世界最高峰のエベレスト（標高８８４８．８６メートル）を登頂したのは２３日。曾さんの登頂時間について、計測したネパール当局は２７日、女性として最速記録となる２５時間５０分だったとＡＦＰに明らかにしていた。
　曾さんは３０日、ＡＦＰに「私はいつも生徒や友人に高い目標を掲げて高い期待を抱けば、高みに到達できると伝えてきた」と語り、「この目標を４年前に立てたので、ほっとしていてうれしく思う」と述べた。
　曾さんは中国本土で生まれ、１０歳で家族と共に香港に移住。家族に財産はなく、学校で無料で参加できるスポーツが曾さんの喜びの源になったという。１１年前に登山家としての訓練を始め、２０１７年、エベレスト初登頂。香港女性として初の快挙を達成していた。
　これまでの女性としてのエベレスト最速登頂記録は、２０１８年にネパール人登山家が達成した３９時間６分だった。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】

〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/06/01-13:59）

Former Hong Kong schoolteacher Tsang Yin-hung said Sunday she always believed in aiming high after setting a new record for the fastest ascent of Everest by a woman.
Tsang scaled the 8,848.86-metre (29,031 feet) mountain in 25 hours and 50 minutes, a Nepal government officer who recorded her time told AFP on Thursday.
The 44-year-old reached the summit of the world's highest peak on May 23 and arrived back in Kathmandu on Sunday.
I am... relaxed and happy because I set this target around four years before, she told AFP.
I have always shared with my students and my friends that if you aim high and expect high, you can achieve high.
Tsang had tried to reach the summit earlier in May, but was stopped by poor weather conditions when she was at 8,755 metres, her guide Pemba Sherpa said.
She had to return to base camp and climb up the mountain again to make her record attempt.
Tsang was born in mainland China and her family moved to Hong Kong when she was 10 years old.
As a child, Tsang said they lived with no resources and sport -- which was free to participate in at her school -- became her source of joy.
When I was young I used to run on the mountains, play basketball and do other sports, she said.
She started to train as a mountaineer 11 years ago and summited Everest in 2017 -- the first woman from Hong Kong to achieve such a feat.
In 2018, Nepali climber Phunjo Jhangmu Lama set the fastest ascent of Everest for a woman with a time of 39 hours 6 minutes.
Tsang's achievement came after Nepal issued a record 408 Everest permits for this climbing season, after last year's was cancelled due to the pandemic.
Several coronavirus cases have been reported at Everest base camp so far as Nepal battles a spike in infections.
Up to 350 people have summited the mountain this spring, the tourism department said.
Other records broken this season include the most ascents of Everest, by Nepali climber Kami Rita Sherpa, who broke his own record with his 25th summit.
Arthur Muir, 75, became the oldest American to climb the world's highest peak when he broke Bill Burke's record set in 2009 at age 67.
Four people -- two foreign climbers and two Sherpa guides -- have died on the mountain so far this year.