NATIONAL NEWS
Achievers Recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records Four Six-Star Finishers of the Abbott World Marathon Majors are Nupes
®
For more information visit: https://www.worldmarathonmajors. com/.
with many marathons leading up to the WMM. The Brothers Johnson were marathon novices, having only run three marathons before beginning their quest. At the beginning of their WMM journey, there were less than 900 Six-Star Medal recipients in the United States and 4,000 worldwide. Running the WMM is a difficult and expensive journey. There are only a few ways a runner can participate in a race: through lotteries and timed qualifica- tions, or by raising money for charities affiliated with the different races. These brothers were successfully vetted. After starting on their Six Star jour- neys at various times, the four Nupes
I t’s an elite group—there are only 11,200 people worldwide who can claim the honor. And only four Nupes! That group is the Six-Star Bryant Fields (Kappa Rho 1987), Chris Gray (Zeta Eta 1993), Steven Johnson (Omicron Kappa 1990), and Antar Johnson (Nu Sigma 1990). within the six-star guidelines. Those who do are awarded the Six Star medal. Additionally, Abbott set up the World Majors Marathon (WMM) Hall of Fame
"Running, and endurance sports in particular, presents an enormous opportunity for Black men to improve health status," stated Fields. "We, ourselves, are each inspired by brothers who see this achievement and have been inspired to join the NUPESRun movement (IG: @NUPESRun1911) - there's more coming. Keep those Kappa Men rolling!"
Finishers for the Abbott World Mara- thon Majors, who are recognized for completing the World Marathons in Tokyo, Boston, New York, London, Ber- lin and Chicago. In addition to running thousands of miles, these Nupes have also raised more than $100,000 for char- ity through the marathons. The Abbott Corporation created the Six Star Medal in 2016 to increase the enthusiasm for running the 26.2- mile races. The corporation encourages participation by anyone who earn a star for each completed world marathon
webpage, where all the Six Star Finish- ers race stats are stored and ranked by different categories. The Six Star Medal has quickly become the "Holy Grail" for runners worldwide. Four members of Kappa Alpha Psi- Bryant Fields (Kappa Rho 1987), Steven Johnson (Omicron Kappa 1990), Chris Gray (Zeta Eta 1993), and Antar Johnson (Nu Sigma 1990) joined in the quest for the Six Star Medal when they were seeking ways to stay active, healthy, and fit as they got older. Bryant and Chris were veteran marathoners
met and fraternized in London. There were usually very few African Americans running the races, outnumbered by 100:1. And as African American males they were outnumbered 10:1 most times with African American females. The most astonishing part was that we were the only Kappa Alpha Psi members that we met while running the international races on the WMM Six Star journey. Like most people, these Nupes had big plans for 2020; they all had secured the charities for the last races on their
20 | SUMMER 2022 ♦ THE JOURNAL
PUBLISHING ACHIEVEMENT IN EVERY FIELD OF HUMAN ENDEAVOR
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs