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Thursday, July 24, 2025

Granny provided inspiration

by

Anand Rampersad, PhD
1613 days ago
20210221

The news of the pass­ing of Lynette ‘Granny’ Luces evoked feel­ings of sad­ness as well as re­flec­tion of some­one who was a ster­ling ex­em­plar of per­se­ver­ance and per­sis­tence for not on­ly sports­men/women but for every­one.

The Hum­ming­bird Gold Medal (2013) re­cip­i­ent and lo­cal run­ning icon was a favourite among fel­low com­peti­tors and crowds. For in­stance, dur­ing her UWI (Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies) half marathon races, it was not un­com­mon to see the crowd along the PBR (Pri­oir­i­ty Bus Route) root­ing for her ver­bal­ly and with ap­plause. She was al­ways ap­pre­cia­tive of the sup­port with her pleas­ant in­fec­tious smile and soft voice.

At my first com­pet­i­tive race in the 1990s, WASA 10k, at the first en­trance in­to WASA at the cor­ner of the EMR and Farm Road, Curepe, Granny (in her late 60s) qui­et­ly ran past me with ease while I was strug­gling to get to the fin­ish line. It was an ho­n­our then and now to have been eclipsed by such a fa­mous na­tion­al sportsper­son.

She has in­spired me and I'm sure oth­ers over the years to keep at run­ning as she demon­strat­ed that age should not be a bar­ri­er. Granny suc­cess­ful­ly chal­lenged an age-ap­pro­pri­ate stereo­type dur­ing her il­lus­tri­ous life as a fe­male. She has paved the way for oth­er fe­males and males young and aged to re­alise their dreams whether in dis­tance run­ning or any oth­er as­pect of their lives.

Her over­ar­ch­ing les­son is once good health pre­vails, the will to suc­ceed backed by per­sis­tence and per­se­ver­ance will yield de­sired re­sults. Granny demon­strat­ed that vic­to­ry should not be sole­ly mea­sured in fi­nal po­si­tion/time (al­beit, im­por­tant) but al­so by be­ing able to com­plete what was start­ed. This is a valu­able les­son as it teach­es about hard work as well as de­ter­mi­na­tion to con­stant­ly chal­lenge our­selves to achieve our goals.

Granny's life will al­ways be a mem­o­rable marathon. You have done us all a great ser­vice and your name and ac­com­plish­ments will be for­ev­er etched in the sport­ing but na­tion­al psy­che. Rest in peace, Granny.


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