The mother of four and grandmother of eight said the historic climb was her fifth time scaling the 4,095m peak. “The last time I scaled Mount Kinabalu was in 2014,” she told English daily The Star.

Chee said she enjoyed hiking and mountain climbing, and scaled mountains and hills around the country at least once a week. She climbed Mount Kinabalu again after encouragement from her trainer, James Lee, who has scaled Mount Everest, the report said.

According to The Star, Chee reached the checkpoints ahead of schedule and amazed other climbers by reaching the peak minutes before the 7am cut-off time.

“I am surprised. I didn’t know that I was the country’s oldest Mount Kinabalu female climber,” she was quoted as saying.

Chee, who said she had been running and hiking since she was 29, thanked Lee, her guide Jahinin Waimi and her group members for helping her reach the top.

In the report, she added that there was no secret to keeping fit, apart from regular exercise.

Kinabalu Park manager Yassin Miki confirmed that Chee was the oldest Malaysian woman to ascend Mount Kinabalu, The Star said.

According to the report, the oldest Malaysian man to climb the mountain was Sabahan Buatin Blandong, 82. It added that the oldest foreigner to scale Mount Kinabalu was a 96-year-old Japanese in 2006.