'I run to win': 100-year-old wins 100-metre race, creates world record

It took Lester Wright 26.34 seconds to surge over the finish line. (Image credit: @ERNESTOMorenoG8/Twitter)

A 100-year-old from the UK created a world record after winning a 100-metre race for centenarians.

It took Lester Wright 26.34 seconds to surge over the finish line.

This comes 25 years after creating the 200m world record for over 75-year-olds when he was 76. Wright turned 100 on Friday.

“If you’re going to go out to run a race, you should really run the race to try to win,” he told Fox 29 before the race. “I don’t know how you can run to be second or third.”

Lester Wright -- whose athletic career has lasted more than 80 years -- had started sprinting in the 1930s. (Image credit: @ERNESTOMorenoG8/Twitter)

After  the race he told the Asbury Park Press, “It was pretty nice to be able to do this at age 100. When I came here I was a little bit nervous, but when I saw the crowd and everything I fell right in with it.”

The centenarian received warm applause from the thousands at Franklin Field.

Entire stadium on their feet for Lester Wright, at 100-years-young, finishing the Penn Relays 100m in 26.34
https://t.co/sQsicxnq7D pic.twitter.com/wNQauZS8a6

— FloTrack (@FloTrack) April 30, 2022

Wright -- whose athletic career has lasted more than 80 years -- had started sprinting in the 1930s before he was forced to pause due to the World War II where he served in the military. At 30, when he returned to the US, Wright started running again and has been competing ever since.

He and his wife of 80 years run a dental supply business for 40 years in New Jersey. Describing his marriage, Wright told ABC 7, “We bowled together, we ran together, we played together, we went to the movies together,” Wright told ABC 7. When asked if he had a perfect marriage, he laughed and said “No".

When his wife, Adele was asked what she thought of Wright's sporting career, she said: “It’s up to him. If he wants to do it, that’s what he wants to do.”

Wright added that his wife had given him some valuable advice before the race. “My wife tells me finish your own race.”

He may be back to break more records too. Asked if he would compete at the Penn Relays in 2023 Wright replied with a chuckle: “Perhaps”.