Andrew Butchart, an Olympian for Team GB, set the record in June 2023, but Griggs beat it by one second.
Nick Griggs, a youngster from Northern Ireland, broke the Parkrun world record by cutting the previous best time in Belfast by one second.
Griggs, who hails from Newmills in Tyrone, beat Olympian Andrew Butchart, who competed for Team GB in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, in June 2023 with a time of 13 minutes and 44 seconds at the weekly 5km event held in Victoria Park.
Last December, Ciara Mageean set the record for the best women’s Parkrun time, which was 15:13, at the Belfast venue.
Following several European medals at the age group level, the 19-year-old Griggs qualified for the senior European Championships in Rome earlier this year after capturing the European Under-20 3,000m championship as a 16-year-old in 2021.
Andrew Coscoran, Luke McCann, and Cathal Doyle narrowly defeated him for the 1500m spots, preventing him from being selected for Team Ireland at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
Furthermore, Griggs said that he had not even intended to set the quickest Parkrun time in history, thus he was taken aback.
Griggs told BBC Radio Ulster, “I wasn’t going into it trying to break the record.” I knew I was in good shape going into the race and that I should have a chance to break the record. Getting it was a bit of a sprint finish, but it felt good.
“Until we were done, I don’t think anyone really knew.” I noticed that I had lost a second to the world record when I checked my watch. It was very startling. To be honest, I wasn’t giving it much thought.
Since not being selected for the Olympics, Griggs has set personal records in the 1500-, 3,000-, and 5,000-meter races.
A few days before the Olympics began, he set a Northern Irish record of 7:36.59 for the 3,000-meter run in the London Diamond League meeting in July, a Northern Irish record of 13:13.07 for the 5,000-meter run at the Morton Games, and a time of 3:35.04 for the 1500-meter run at the British Milers Club meeting in Tooting.
Since Parkrun refers to its events as a “run and not a race,” it does not officially recognise times as world records.
