Five Masters Records
There were five masters records at the event at Lee Valley on Wednesday February 4.
Five athletes bettered the British records and two of them set world records.
Clare Elms World Record
The two world record all-vet races unusually came after the senior races as the announcing team of Don Brown and Peter Scott kept the crowd abreast of the record.
Clare Elms, who already holds 11 world record or bests made it 12 as she regained her W60 record.
Two years ago she ran a short-lived 5:30.89 world record at this meeting but that mark was improved on three occasions since and while her 5:30.89 remained the British record her target was American Olympian Michelle Rohl’s 5:26.65 in January this year.
In her first indoor race of the winter at the British 3000m championships in Cardiff, Elms had regained the world record from W55 world champion Rohl and running steadily and solo but in control with 81 seconds per quarter, she improved the world mark to 5:25.07 at the age of 62.
For the moment she now holds the two indoor and outdoor world records at both 1500m and mile and currently owns 27 British bests.
Behind her Nikki Sturzaker went top of the 2026 W50 world rankings with 5:30.44 though down on the W60 mark.
The race was won by W40 Laura Haggarty in 5:04.54 as she fell five seconds short of the British best.
Andrew Ridley’s World Record
Andrew Ridley was in the next race. Last year he set a M60 world record to break great rival’s Rob McHarg mark set in the previous race.
Sadly McHarg who set a world 1500m record in the British indoor Championships ahead of Ridley was unable to run.
Consequently, Ridley just held on to the pacemaker and World M55 champion Mark Symes.
Symes chasing a M55 world record of his own pushed on over the last few laps but fell a few seconds short with 4:41.05 and three seconds back Ridley ran 4:44.12 to improve his world record by a second.
Ridley already holds the world outdoor 1500m and mile records.
Three British records
First to set a record though was M80 Peter Giles who ran a very solo 6:48.50 to take almost a minute off of Doug Milsom’s record and missed the world record by six seconds.
He started fast and though slowing up it’s worth noting his time was also quicker than the M75 record and his mile time is superior to the 1500m record despite it being 109 metres longer!
At the other end of the age scale Harry Wakefield added another M35 record and became the first British master to break four minutes indoors.
His 3:59.17 took almost ten seconds off of the previous best as he finished fourth in a top class race.
The other British best went to M50 world champion Kojo Kyereme.
With a strong last few laps his 4:26.62 took five seconds off of European champion Dean Richardson’s month-old mark.
It was only three seconds short of American Sean Wade’s ten year-old mark.