The Brit becomes the oldest woman ever to run a sub-18 minute 5km after a record-breaking mark in London.

Clare Elms has set over 50 world, European or British records/bests in the past two decades, but saved her best run, statistically speaking, this past Saturday in Battersea (April 4).

The races were won impressively by Kadar Omar (14:07) and Hannah Viner (16:30 PB) but the most notable performance came from Elms who was 135th out of 141 finishers in the elite race.

The Kent AC athlete ran 17:48 (17:45 on chip) compared to a previous world W60 best of 18:15 from her run at Battersea on New Year’s Eve.

At the age of 62 that easily made her the oldest woman ever to break 18 minutes, garnering a record 104 per-cent on age-grading on tables that have been made tougher for older females in recent years.

It was her quickest 5km for seven years, when she then ran a W55 world best of 17:39.

When she was interviewed by AW’s Jason Henderson after winning the AW reader’s choice masters athlete of the year in 2024, she stated that "I’d love to get back inside 18 minutes for 5km, I just need to get the right race and right weather."

After 20 or so attempts and numerous world and UK bests at 5km since turning 60, it began to looked a tall order. At the end of 2025 her best was a 18:15 gun time, though she had run a 18:09 chip time on a slightly downhill mid-Cheshire course; the masses had meant she only ran 18:31 for best-setting purposes as it took her 22 seconds to cross the start line.

While World Masters Athletics don’t recognise the 5km as a ratifiable distance, British Masters do but they insist on gun times, which masters say is impractical for older runners in big races.

At Battersea, it meant though she was on paper the current oldest and slowest competitor given tough qualifying standards, she had to go nearer the front than ideal to minimise time lost on a fairly narrow start on the track.

However, determined on the week of her mother’s funeral and the day of her poorly 94 year-old father’s birthday she was keen to have good news to report when she visited her biggest supporter later that day in hospital. Therefore, she decided to have a real attempt at sub-18 despite breezy conditions.

After leaving the track mid-pack she was actually back in last place as she passed 1km slightly behind target in 3:38. With the wind behind her she got back on track in a fast second kilometre of 3:30 as she picked off a few ahead of target and she passed 3km in 10:43 incidentally quicker than her then world W60 indoor 3000m record she set in Ireland last year.

Her fourth kilometre was a slower 3:40 but feeling comfortable she produced a 3:22 final kilometre (sub-17 pace) as she passed a few younger runners ahead.

Her time puts her nearly three minutes clear of the UK W60 rankings.

Apart from family inspiration, she puts down her big improvement down to increased strength work, having made her Hyrox competitive debut the week before.

Visiting her father in hospital every day has limited her competitive opportunities in 2026 but she did set then indoor world records at mile and 3000m and in her only other two races at 1500m, she ran times that would have been world records at the end of January.

Behind Omar’s 14:07, Jack Millar took second ahead of junior Tom Webb’s 14:20 and Masters international winner Lee Gratton’s 14:37.

Elms wasn’t the only good women’s masters time, as Stragglers’ W45 Lisa Bailey was second with 16:55 and Mansfield’s Hayley Gill was the top W50 with 17:44.