[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUNnE0Z3qsc&w=560&h=315]
Ella Mae Colbert, a 100-year-old runner in South Carolina has just broken the Guinness World Record for fastest 100-meter dash by a runner over 100-years-old.
Colbert’s first attempt ended Tuesday when she stumbled and fell in front of cheering family and well-wishers who lined the track at Chesnee Middle School. But after bandaging her chin, she got herself back up, and went straight back to the finish line for what was reportedly a 46:7-second finish. The retired school teacher’s family has applied with the Guinness Book of World Records for consideration — but many are already proclaiming her a winner.
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“You do not stop,” Colbert told NBC. “Go ahead. You’ll have some trials and you’ll have something that gets in your way, but you don’t let it get you down. You get up. You go again.”
The centenarian has been running since high school, takes three-mile walks as often as possible and eats whatever she likes, she said.
So far, Guinness site lists the oldest competitive sprinter as Hidekichi Miyazaki, a Japanese man who was 105-years-and-one-day-old when he ran the 100-meter dash in 42.22 seconds. Earlier this month, Penn Relays reported that 100-year-old Ida Keeling of New York set a new world record in the 100-meter dash with a time of 1:17:33 in a race against others who were over 80-years-old.
“No, I’m not tired,” said Colbert after finishing the race. “I stopped running for the school because they got all the credit. So I decided when I was 20, that I’d only get on the track for someone else. So I chose Jesus Christ as my coach and I’ve been running ever since.”
