The British Masters’ most prolific record holder has clocked five consecutive six-minute miles at Battersea.
Claire Elms set a world W60 five mile best time of 29:53 at the Veterans AC Championships on Tuesday (May 5), bettering her own time of 30:44 in the process.
The 62-year-old won the women’s race by more than 90 seconds to become the oldest ever overall winner, with anyone over 35 eligible to compete.
Her previous W60 world best over five miles was 30:44 at Wolverton in 2024, although it’s worth noting that US Olympian Michelle Rolle ran 29:58 over the shorter 8km in 2025.
So Elms’ 29:53 is also considered the world’s best over 8km, albeit 40 meters short of the Briton’s 8km of perhaps 29:44. Elms was not feeling the color racing and decided to run a more controlled run than his recent world best of 17:45 in the 5km.
Running each mile in a fraction of six minutes, he surged in the final mile to finish within 400m of W50 European Masters medalist Lynn Skinner, who ran 31:26.
Another record-breaking performance came from Welsh broadcaster and 2:38:47 marathon runner Angarad Mair, who set a world W65 five-mile best of 33:12 in her first serious age-group race.
W55 Anna Critchlow (32:33) finished third woman ahead of leader W65 Mair. 1997 The leading British female marathon runner at the World Championships in Athens – she finished 23rd in 2:42:31 – set a W55 British marathon best of 2:54:42 in 2017, but has only run parkruns in recent years after taking a break from serious racing since 2023. that mark for 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 a UK best 10km 39:19.
The men’s race was easily won by M40 Jim Alchin in 26:41 with laps of 2:59, 7:42, 7:48 and 7:48. M45 leader Raj Paranand was second in 26:57 while fellow M44 Muhammad Ismail was third in 27:41.
Andy Bond was first M50 in 28:19 with Andrew Edge leading M55 in 29:02. Top M60 was Mike Webber (30:03) who finished just behind W60 Elms, with David Ogden (31:04) leading M65. Pete Giles (38:47) was easily the first M80 ahead of ever-present Bill O’Connor at the London Marathon.
In a separate five-mile walk, M40 Philip Bernard won in 43:11 and W50 Chuck Ha Kwok (51:04). World and European W65 medalist Susan Payne was the second woman in 53:13.
Total (5 m). 1 J Alchin (M40) 26:19; 2 R Paranandi (M45) 26:57; 3 M Ishmael (M45) 28:19; 4 A Bond (M40) 28:19
M55: 1 A Edge 29:02; 2 J Reid 29:37
M60: 1 M Weber 30:03; 2 K Dawson 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 Best W60) 2 L Skinner (W50) 31:26; 3 A Critchlow (W55) 32:33; 4 A Mair (W65) 33:12 (World’s best W65)
W65: 2 L Tyler 36:36
5 m 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 rating of the race, Elms (age 62) held the all-time 5 mile record at any age with 103.9% to Mair (65) 97.3%, Critchlow (58) 90.8%, Corfield (64) 88.9%, Giles (81) 88.8 and 6c) 88.3%.
