Britain's most prolific masters record-breaker achieved five successive sub-six minutes miles in Battersea.

Clare Elms set a world W60 five mile best of 29:53 at the Veterans AC Championships on Tuesday (May 5), improving her mark of 30:44 in the process.

The 62 year-old won the women's race outright by over 90 seconds to become the oldest ever overall winner, with all over-35s eligible to compete.

Her previous world W60 best for five miles was 30:44 from Wolverton in 2024, though it's worth noting US Olympian Michelle Rohl had run 29:58 for the shorter 8km distance in 2025.

Thus Elms' 29:53 counts as an 8km world best too, though it is 40 metres short after the Briton probably passed 8km in around 29:44. Elms felt off colour pre-race and decided to run a more controlled run than match her recent 17:45 world best at 5km.

Running each mile a fraction inside six minutes, she picked up in the final mile and finished 400m clear of W50 European Masters medallist Lin Skinner who ran 31:26.

Another record-breaking performance came from Welsh television presenter and 2:38:47 marathon runner Angharad Mair, who set a world W65 five mile best of 33:12 in her first serious race in the age-group.

W55 Anna Critchlow (32:33) finished third woman ahead of leading W65 Mair. The leading British female marathon runner at the 1997 World Championships in Athens – she placed 23rd in 2:42:31 – set a W55 British marathon best of 2:54:42 in 2017, but had only run parkruns in recent years after a break from serious racing since 2023. She was chasing fellow Brit Claudine Benstead's 33:21 from last year and bettered that mark by nine seconds.

It's worth noting how competitive the W65 age group is now with Fiona Matheson having just run a world best 5km (18:58) and UK best at 10km of 39:19.

The men's race was won easily by M40 Jim Allchin in 26:41 with laps of 2:59, 7:42, 7:48 and 7:48. Second was leading M45 Raj Paranandi in 26:57 with fellow M44 Mohammed Ismael third in 27:41.

Andy Bond was first M50 in 28:19 with Andrew Edge the leading M55 in 29:02. The top M60 was Mike Webber (30:03) who finished just behind W60 Elms while David Ogden (31:04) was the leading M65. Pete Giles (38:47) was easily first M80 ahead of London Marathon ever-present Bill O'Connor.

In the separate five mile walk there were wins for M40 Philip Bernard in 43:11 and W50 Chuck Ha Kwok (51:04). Multi world and European W65 medalist Susan Payne was second woman in 53:13.

Overall (5m): 1 J Allchin (M40) 26:19; 2 R Paranandi (M45) 26:57; 3 M Ismael (M45) 28:19; 4 A Bond (M40) 28:19
M55: 1 A Edge 29:02; 2 J Reid 29:37
M60: 1 M Webber 30:03; 2 K Dowson 30:15; 3 S Corfield 30:16
M65: 1 D Ogden 31:04
M75: 1 F Brennan 36:36
M80: 1 P Giles 38:47
Women: 1 C Elms (W60) 29:53 (World W60 best) 2 L Skinner (W50) 31:26; 3 A Critchlow (W55) 32:33; 4 A Mair (W65) 33:12 (World W65 best)
W65: 2 L Tyler 36:36

5m walk: 1 P Bernard (M40) 43:11
M65: 1 C Harle 49:50
Women: 1 C Ha Kwok (W50) 51:04: 2 S Payne (W65) 53:13

*In the age-grading of the race Elms (aged 62) scored an all-time 5 mile record of any age of 103.9 per-cent to Mair (65) 97.3%, Critchlow (58) 90.8%, Corfield (64) 88.9%, Giles (81) 88.8% and Ogden (66) and Tyler (65) both 88.3%.