100-Year-Old Man Steals Show At Philadelphia Race

KEY POINTS

100-year-old Lester Wright finished a 100-meter dash in 26 seconds
Wright says he was hardly tired after the event
He competed in relays before he joined the army during World War II

On Saturday, April 30, the 2022 Penn Relays were held over in Philadelphia.

While all eyes were on several names with a storied past, the moment belonged to a 100-year-old man.

Lester Wright did not finish with a flare. He competed in the 100-meter dash and finished seventh in a field of nine.

While that may not matter much in traditional races, the fact is that there is a 100-year-old man who was able to clock 26-seconds despite his age and finish the said race.

Roughly 38,000 were on hand to witness the feat of Wright at the Franklin Field.

The man from Long Branch was given a standing ovation for his effort, holding his own against other competitors who were aged 80 and above.

But the bottom line here is that Wright was able to finish the race and did not come up dead last.

"It was pretty nice to be able to do this at age 100," Wright said in a report from USA Today. "When I came here I was a little bit nervous, but when I saw the crowd and everything I fell right in with it."

Wright is no stranger when it comes to tracking competition. He ran the track for Long Branch High School in 1930 before joining the Army during World War II.

After evading bombs and the infamous Battle of the Bulge that earned him four Bronze Battle Stars, Wright came home to finish college on the GI Bill and opened the first African American-owned dental lab in Monmouth County, New Jersey that made prosthetic teeth.

However, Wright still made sure that he kept running.

In 1999 at age 77, he competed and won the 75-and-over 100-meter dash at Penn Relays.

Wright has since continued to compete. He runs through the streets of Long Branch at least three times a week, a mile-and-a-half at a time.

He turned 100 on Friday, April 29, the day before the race, ABC 7 reported.

The next oldest competitor was 92-years-old with the rest in their 80s. The winning time was 17.33 seconds, achieved by 84-year-old Bob Williamson.

When asked to comment on his performance, Wright branded it as slow.

"At 100 meters, I feel like I’m just getting started," he stated. "I thought this was nice, but I wanted a longer race."