WASHINGTON — Two men in their nineties sprinted to the finish line, and the 99-year-old edged the 92-year-old by a mere 0.05 seconds.
At the 2017 Masters Indoor Track Championship in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Dixon Hemphill, 92, of Fairfax Station, Virginia, led for 55 meters before he was overtaken by 99-year-old Orville Rogers of Dallas, Texas.
Hemphill told Runner’s World that he believes he would have won had he leaned a little bit. The race was a photo finish, with only five hundredths of a second between Hemphill and World War II veteran Rogers, the only other person in the race. Hemphill finished in 18:05 seconds, Rogers in 18 seconds.
Rogers has bested Hemphill in the 60-meter dash for the past four years, but Hemphill has beaten Rogers in longer distances, Runner’s World reported.
More than 40 years ago at the age of 50, Hemphill took up running and has been an avid runner since then, WJLA reported. He took a brief respite in 2008 when he had hip replacement surgery.
Rogers became a runner at age 50 and recently wrote a book on running.
Watch the exciting race between Hemphill and Rogers:
