British masters athlete runs 10:43.34 in Athlone in Ireland to take five seconds off old mark

On a weekend that saw British 3000m runners take two silver medals in the European Indoor Championships, Clare Elms also enjoyed success over 15 laps.

The Briton added to her many world age-group records when she took five seconds off of the W60 indoor 3000m mark set by Fiona Matheson of Scotland with a time of 10:43.34 at the Irish Masters Championships at Athlone on Saturday (March 8).

With no available 3000m races in England, the AW masters athlete of 2024, decided to travel to Ireland for an attempt prior to the World Championships in Florida later in the month where she is entered for the 1500m, 3000m, cross-country and 10km events.

Competing in Ireland in the women's race that covered all age groups W35 up, the Kent AC athlete finished third overall ahead of all the W45, W50 and W55 winners.

Last year she had missed Matheson's mark by one hundredth of a second in the British Championships at Sheffield after having problems passing lapped runners on the final lap.

This time she was on target throughout and finished strongly a few weeks after breaking the W60 world 1500m record in the masters inter area match.

The race was won by W40 Rachel Murphy in 10:18.21.

M50 Lea Fulcher produced the fastest overall male clocking with 9:15.19.

Northern Ireland's British champion Dave Clarke won the M65 800m in 2:29.23 and the 1500m by over 40 seconds in 4:59.07.