How a 19-year-old broke the parkrun world record – without even starting

The parkrun world record was broken by Northern Irish teenager Nick Griggs, who beat the previous best time in Belfast by a second.

Griggs, from Newmills in Tyrone, clocked 13 minutes 44 seconds in the Victoria Park edition of the weekly 5km event, bettering the time of 13min 45sec clocked by Olympian Andrew Butchart – who represented Team GB at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 – in Edinburgh in June. 2023.

It was also in Belfast that the best women’s parkrun time, 15:13, was set by Ciara Mageean last December.

Griggs, 19, has made waves in the world of athletics, winning the European under-20 3000m title at age 16 in 2021 and following up further European medals at age group level , qualifying for the seniors. European Championships in Rome earlier this year.

He narrowly missed out on selection for the Paris 2024 Olympics for Team Ireland, as Andrew Coscoran, Luke McCann and Cathal Doyle pipped him to the available 1500m places.

And Griggs admitted he was shocked to have achieved the fastest parkrun time in history, without even deciding to do it.

“I didn’t intend to break the record,” Griggs told BBC Radio Ulster. “Before the race I knew I was in good shape and should have a chance to break the record. It was a bit of a sprint to get it but it was a good feeling.

“I don’t think anyone really knew until we were done. I looked at my watch and saw that I had taken a second off the world record. It was quite shocking. I didn’t really think about it, to be honest. We all realized it afterwards and there was a bit of buzz around it.

Since missing Olympic selection, Griggs has run personal bests in the 1,500m, 3,000m and 5,000m.

He clocked 3:35.04 for 1,500m at the British Milers Club meeting in Tooting a few days before the start of the Olympics, a Northern Ireland record for 3,000m of 7:36, 59 at the London Diamond League meeting in July and another Northern Ireland record of 13:13.07 over 5000m at the Morton Games

Technically, Parkrun does not classify times as world records, with the organization describing its events as a “run not a race”.