CAPTAIN ZINN MEMORIAL RACES AGAIN HONOR OLYMPIC GREAT AND ALL VIETNAM VETERANS

   By ELLIOTT DENMAN
    COLTS NECK – The Captain Ronald Zinn Memorial Races have been staged by the Shore Athletic Club since 1966.  They honor the memory of  an illustrious USA Olympic athlete, a gallant West Point graduate who gave his life for his nation in Vietnam combat on July 7, 1965, as well as all Vietnam veterans.
    Zinn himself had been a frequent winner of Shore AC racewalk events in
Long Branch, Asbury Park and Seaside Heights.  He’d made his Olympic debut in the 20-kilometer racewalk at the Rome Games of 1960, placing 19th as a young cadet, and improved to sixth place in the 20K – best-ever finish by an
American to that point in Olympic history – at Tokyo in 1964.
   Interred at West Point – along with numerous other American military heroes – Captain Zinn’s name  has served as an inspiration to latter-day athletes ever since.  The names of Kyle Spector and Katie Desiere, Bruce Logan and Dorit Attias, have now been added to the long rollcall of Capt. Zinn Memorial 5K     champions after their wins at Dorbrook Park on April 13, 2025.
   Manalapan resident Spector, a multi-time Central Atlantic Athletic Conference champion in his his days at Georgian Court University (15:48), and Desiere, an Ocean Township resident (18:44), took top honors in the 5K run.  New Yorker Logan and Lakewood resident Attias led the way in the concurrent 5K racewalk.
    Top Masters racer was Nora Cary of Moorestown, newly crowned National and World women’s 70 division bracket record-setter,  with her 23:53 finish.
  Once a racewalk-only event and staged on the Asbury Park Boardwalk – where Zinn had been a winner –the event program added the run I967.   Zinn had been an outstanding runner – and NCAA and IC4A cross-country championships competitors, too, at West Point.
   Following Zinn tradition, the races – sponsored by New Jersey Natural Gas Co, for over a half-century, along with other community supporters, also honored all Vietnam veterans.  And leading them again was former Army staff sergeant Joe Renzella of Neptune City, twice a Purple Heart winner in Vietnman, proudly carrying the American flag to a 39:48 performance in the 5K run.
  The next edition of the Captain Zinn Memorial Races is again slated for Dorbrook Park, in April 2026.  Stay tuned for details.