'Buzzing' - Griggs was 'not trying' to break Parkrun record

Teenager Nick Griggs admits he didn't set out to break the Parkrun world record after achieving the feat in Belfast on Saturday.

The County Tyrone 19-year-old clocked 13 minutes 44 seconds for the 5km distance as he cut one second off the previous best set by Great Britain Olympian Andy Butchart in Edinburgh in June 2023.

Griggs said he was "buzzing" when he realised he had broken the record at Victoria Park, saying he was treating it as a "hard run out" ahead of the Irish Cross Country Championships.

"I wasn't going into it trying to break the record," Griggs said on BBC Radio Ulster.

"Before the race, I knew I was in good shape and knew I should be within a chance of breaking the record.

"It was a bit of a sprint finish to get it but it was a good feeling."

While Parkrun does not classify times as world records, describing its events as a "run and not a race", it is the second record to be set at the Belfast venue in 12 months after fellow Irish international runner Ciara Mageean, 32, set a best women's time of 15mins 13secs in December.

Griggs, who burst on to the athletics scene in the summer of 2021 when he won the European Under-20 3,000m title as a 16-year-old, missed out on selection for the Paris Olympics but has responded by setting personal bests over 1500m, 3,000m and 5,000m.

Griggs, who is in action at the Irish Cross Country Championships in Enniskillen on 17 November, also has an eye on the European Championships in Turkey.

"Our training group do the Parkrun the week before the Irish Cross Country Championships as a hard run out so we can feel the pain a little bit and get prepared," said Griggs, who said his schedule was "busy but very enjoyable".

"I don't think anyone really knew until we finished. I looked at my watch and saw I had taken a second off the world record." he added.

"It was pretty shocking. I wasn't really thinking about it, to be honest.

"We all realised after and there was a bit of a buzz around it."