Centenarian breaks 100m record at Penn Relays
Lester Wrighta 100-year-old World War II veteran ran the fastest 100m ever for a centenarian, clocking 26.34 seconds at the Penn Relays on Saturday.
Wright placed seventh of nine in the men’s 80-plus division, beating an 86-year-old and a 92-year-old.
While awaiting certification, the New Jersey native broke the previous men’s world record in the 100-year-old category, a 26.99 set by Donald Pelman in 2015, a masters athletics official confirmed.
British Fauja Singh ran an uncertified 23.40 at 100 in 2011.
“If you’re going to run a race, you really should run the race to try and win,” Wright, who turned 100 on Friday, told a Fox affiliate ahead of the competition. “I don’t know how you can race to be second or third.”
A local TV reporter asked Wright, who was racing for the first time in three years after illness, if he was tired.
“No,” Wright replied.
Would you do it again? “Yes,” Wright said.
Wright’s early career on the track was cut short by World War II. He served under General George Patton on the beaches of Normandy, according to the Fox subsidiary.
He also buried the dead of the Battle of the Bulge and became a sergeant, according to an ABC affiliate. He and his wife opened a dental lab, ran it for 40 years and have great-great-grandchildren, according to local TV reports.
At the 2016 Penn Relays, Ida Keeling set a world record for the fastest 100m by a woman aged 100+, weeks before her 101st birthday.
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The whole stadium standing for Lester Wright, at 100, finishing the Penn Relays 100m in 26.34 👏
📺: https://t.co/sQsicxnq7D pic.twitter.com/wNQauZS8a6—FloTrack (@FloTrack) April 30, 2022