Clare Elms Breaks World W60 3000m Record With 10:28.76

Clare Elms has broken the world W60 record for 3000m, running 10 minutes, 28.76 seconds at the Ron Hale Open in Lewisham, London, on Sunday to erase a mark that had lasted seven years.

Competing at the Alex Yee Arena, the 62-year-old bettered Germany’s Silke Schmid, whose record of 10:28.94 had stood since 2019. As Athletics Weekly first reported, it came down to 0.18 of a second.

Elms had circled this record for a while. She missed it by narrow margins three times, running 10:33.34 in 2024, 10:31.73 in 2025 and 10:31.15 just last month. This time she got it, and she did it in heat of around 30C (86F). It was her quickest 3000m in seven years, since the British W55 record she set at 55.

Her form is remarkable for any runner over 60. Elms is Britain’s most prolific masters middle-distance runner, and the way she has kept training and racing deep into her sixties puts her alongside the small group of athletes, such as American marathoner Jeannie Rice, who keep pushing past what the age-graded tables say should be possible.

How The Race Unfolded

Through the opening kilometre Elms sat behind M55 runner Paul Stack and her Kent AC clubmate and meeting organiser Richard Giles, hitting 1000m on target in 3:29.0. Giles led her through halfway in 5:14.2 and 2000m in 6:59.1.

Then the heat started to bite. Giles pulled five metres clear on the penultimate lap, and with the schedule slipping it looked like the record might get away. Over the final 100m, Stack kicked past and Elms went with him, crossing the line 0.18 of a second inside Schmid’s mark. According to Athletics Weekly, she believes a cooler, stiller evening would bring a quicker time.

Elms’ heat was won by Andrew Barringham in 8:52.31. Amelia Pettitt, who placed in the top ten at this winter’s North of England Cross-Country Championships, was the first woman home in 10:20.27, around 40 metres up on Elms.

Still Adding To The Collection

The 3000m is only the latest entry in a busy year. Elms has already set world masters indoor records over 3000m and the mile, a world W60 outdoor 1500m record of 4:56.77, and world W60 bests at 5km (17:48, then 17:45) and five miles (29:53). Over the past two decades she has set more than 100 British, European or world records or world age bests, the kind of tally that comes from consistent, structured track work year after year.

There is a rivalry pushing her along. Fiona Matheson, who held the world W60 indoor 3000m record before Elms, is raising the bar one age group up. The Scot set a British W65 5000m record of 19:25.13 at the Pursuit 5000m in Stirling on July 4, run in cooler conditions than London, where Jacob Deacon won the men’s elite race in a big personal best of 13:26.93 from Jake Smith (13:29.78).

Elms moves up to the W65 ranks in two years. Matheson, it seems, is doing her best to make the targets hard when she gets there.