PHILADELPHIA — The most remarkable race at the 2022 Penn Relays didn’t belong to Olympic champ Athing Mu or the dominant University of South Carolina sprinters or even the high-schooler who ran a 4: 01 mile.
It was 100-year-old Long Branch, New Jersey resident Lester Wright running the 100-meter rush Saturday — and holding his own versus 80-somethings. Not just did Wright surface the race, clocking a spry 26 seconds; he didn’t come in last. Competing for Shore Athletic Club, the World War II veteran crossed the line seventh of 9 competitors, simply a couple of strides from 5th location.
The Franklin Field crowd of 38,000 liked every bit of it, offering Wright and the other master’s-level rivals a full-throated standing ovation.
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“It was quite great to be able to do this at age 100,” Wright stated. “When I came here I was a little bit anxious, however when I saw the crowd and whatever I fell right in with it.”
Wright ran track for Long Branch High School in the 1930s. He married his teenage sweetie Adele — they are still wed, 80 years lateron — then went off to Europe with the Army throughout World War II, averting bombs at the notorious Battle of the Bulge and earning 4 Bronze Battle Stars. He came house, went to college on the GI costs and opened the veryfirst African American-owned oral laboratory in Monmouth County, New Jersey, making prosthetic teeth.
All the while Wright kept running. In 1999, as a 77-year-old, he won the 75-and-over 100-meter dash at the Penn Relays. To this day, he runs through the streets of Long Branch at least 3 times a week, a mile-and-a-half at a time.
Wright turned 100 Friday, the day priorto the race. The next-oldest rival was 92 and the others were in their 80s. The winning time, for the record, was a vigorous 17.33 seconds by 84-year-old Bob Williamson.
Asked what he idea of his efficiency, Wright quipped, “Slow.”
Asked if he was tired, he responded strongly, “No.”
He utilized to run th