The New York Instances has reported that American masters dash sensation Julia “Hurricane” Hawkins died on Tuesday at age 108. Hawkins, a record-setting centenarian runner, grew to become an icon within the masters track-and-field world, having taken up aggressive operating after turning 100.
Hawkins made headlines in 2017 when she clocked 30.62 seconds within the 100m, setting a world document within the girls’s 100+ division on the U.S. Nationwide Senior Video games. 4 years later, she made historical past once more by operating one other 100m world document, this time within the women-over-105 class. She accomplished the race in 1 minute, 2.95 seconds on the 2021 Louisiana Senior Video games, turning into the primary American girl to set a masters operating world document within the 105+ age bracket.
Born in 1916, Hawkins didn’t begin operating competitively till 2016, when her sons signed her up for a 50-metre sprint through the Louisiana Senior Olympic Video games. In keeping with her obituary in The New York Instances, it was her first track-and-field occasion, and she or he completed the race in 19 seconds. She positioned first in her age group—unsurprisingly, as she was the one competitor over 100 years previous. This race ignited a ardour that led Hawkins to compete in lots of masters occasions throughout the nation over the following few years, setting a number of information within the 100m.
Earlier than taking over operating, Hawkins had been an avid bike owner in her 60s and 70s. But it surely was her change to sprinting that made her a world masters operating star. When Hawkins was requested how she did it, she pointed to her vigorous coaching routine, which included maneuvering round her backyard.
Her story is much like one other grasp operating legend, Japan’s Hidekichi Miyazaki, who set the lads’s 105+ 100-metre document in 2015 with a time of 42.44 seconds. Like Hawkins, Miyazaki was 108 when he died in 2019. Each athletes demonstrated the spirit of competitors, proving that, relating to pursuing new challenges later in life, age is only a quantity.