A keen swimmer since he was 8, he keeps fit by lifting light weights every second day for half an hour and swimming 1500m once a week.
"Swimming is not a sport where you need a lot of strength but you've got to have stamina," he said.
"If you don't use it, you lose it," he said, grasping one of his 750gm hand weights.
Doncaster-born Beech was taught to swim by his uncle and before World War II was in the Doncaster Amateur Swimming Club. During the war, while posted in Madras with the Royal Air Force, he continued his love of swimming in Red Hills Lake, beside which he was stationed.
"It was the biggest swimming pool I've ever trained in," he said.
"There was nothing else to do but swim or fly. Whenever we were off duty we went into the lake."
Beech continued to be an avid swimmer on his return to the UK and in South Africa, where he lived for 33 years. But it was not until he and his wife Mary retired in Mijas, Spain, that he started competing.
Having joined the Mijas Swimming Club, he went to the masters world championships in Casablanca and won silver in the 200m breaststroke.
Later, after moving to New Zealand, he competed in the world championships in Christchurch and again won silver in the 200m breaststroke in the 80-84 age group.
"I've had a lifetime of age-group swimming," he said.
Beech, whose mother lived until she was 96 and his father until he was 87, attributed his good health to "luck".
Although he eats a healthy diet - porridge for breakfast every day and plenty of vegetables for dinner - he suspected it had more to do with genes than lifestyle.
But while he continues to be in good health, he intends to make the most of it. "I've been exercising for 20 years solid and I shall do it until I die," he said.