JAPAN:An 80-year-old man on the verge of completing a round-Japan cycling tour was struck and killed by a truck yesterday only a few hours ride from his home, police said.
Kamesaburo Harano, a resident of the central prefecture of Nagano, set off in April 2006 to circle his homeland, Kyodo news agency said, and had just arrived back in Nagano.
One internet cycling page carries a photograph of a fit and healthy, smiling Harano taken last October, standing by a bicycle laden with panniers on the picturesque southern island of Yakushima.
Police said he was struck and killed while cycling in a tunnel.
"Probably he would have made it home in a couple of hours, certainly within the day," a police spokesman in Nagano said.
