The Brit continued her record breaking form as the country's most prolific masters middle distance runner.

Clare Elms has set a world W60 3000m record with an incredible 10:28.76 at the Ron Hale Open in Lewisham, London (July 5).

Competing at the Alex Yee Arena, the 62-year-old bettered German Silke Schmid's highly regarded record of 10:28.94 from 2019.

Elms narrowly missed out on bettering that mark in 2024 (10:33.34), 2025 (10:31.73) and last month (10:31.15), but she finally reached her target this past weekend.

The Brit achieved the feat in temperatures of around 30C and it was her fastest time over 3000m since her then British W55 record set seven years earlier.

 

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In the opening kilometre she followed M55 Paul Stack and her Kent AC clubmate and meeting organiser Richard Giles, hitting 1000m bang on target in 3:29.0.

Giles led her through halfway in 5:14.2 and 2000m in 6:59.1, though she thought she might be dropping behind schedule, with the heat getting to her as Giles pulled five metres clear of her on the penultimate lap.

It looked touch and go on the final lap but fortunately in the last 100m, Stack kicked by her and Elms responded, bettering the record by just 0.18 of a second. She is confident she can go quicker in cooler and stiller conditions.

Elms' heat was won by Andrew Barringham (8:52.31) while Amelia Pettitt, who finished in the top ten in the North of England Cross-Country Championships this winter, was the first woman 40 metres ahead of Elms in 10:20.27.

This year, Elms has already set world masters indoor records over the 3000m and mile, as well as setting a world W60 outdoor record in the 1500m (4:56.77) and world W60 bests over 5km (17:48 then 17:45) and five miles (29:53 and over the last 20 years has set over a 100 British or European or world records or world age bests).

Elms will be joining the W65 rankings in two years time and Fiona Matheson, who held the world W60 indoor 3000m record before Elms, is again doing her best to increase the difficulty.

The Scot set a British W65 5000m record of 19:25.13 at the Pursuit 5000m in Stirling (July 4), in cooler weather than in London. Jacob Deacon won the men's elite race in a huge PB of 13:26.93 from Jake Smith (13:29.78).