Centenarians in the record books for track and field

Author: Sakina Bowser
Published: Updated:
Photo Credit: WINK NEWS

Two centenarians are proving age is nothing but a number.

The men on opposite ends of the world have both set world records in track and field in their age divisions.

Don Pellmann, who just turned 100 years old last month has been competing in senior track meets since he was 70. He has entered 890 events and has gold medals in all but five. Last weekend, he set a world record in five of his six events.

“Hundred-year-old people don’t pole vault and don’t high jump and don’t run. Yeah, you’re the only one I know who does,” said Pellmann.

He says he missed on the pole vault because his assisted living home doesn’t have a pit out back to practice.

Meanwhile in Japan, 105-year-old Hidekichi Miyazaki set a new Guinness World Record in track and field. He ran the 100 meter spring in 42.22 seconds, making him the world’s oldest competitive sprinter.

Miyazaki said he didn’t take up track and field until he was 93.

 

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