The New York Occasions has reported that American masters dash sensation Julia “Hurricane” Hawkins died on Tuesday at age 108. Hawkins, a record-setting centenarian runner, turned 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 file 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 file, 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, changing into the primary American lady to set a masters operating world file 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 in the course of the Louisiana Senior Olympic Video games. In line with her obituary in The New York Occasions, it was her first track-and-field occasion, and he or she completed the race in 19 seconds. She positioned first in her age group—unsurprisingly, as she was the one competitor over 100 years outdated. 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 data within the 100m.
Earlier than taking over operating, Hawkins had been an avid bike owner in her 60s and 70s. However it was her swap to sprinting that made her a global 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 file 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, with regards to pursuing new challenges later in life, age is only a quantity.
