Nick Griggs Breaks Parkrun Record, States It Wasn’t His Primary Goal

Teenager Nick Griggs established a new unassisted Parkrun world record at Victoria Park in Belfast on Saturday, though he has stated that breaking the record was not his initial intention. The 19-year-old from County Tyrone completed the 5km course in 13 minutes and 44 seconds, surpassing the prior record by one second. The previous best was established by Great Britain Olympian Andy Butchart in Edinburgh in June 2023. Griggs expressed that he was “buzzing” upon discovering he had broken the record at Victoria Park, explaining that he had approached the event as a “hard run out” in preparation for the upcoming Irish Cross Country Championships. Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster, Griggs stated, “I wasn’t going into it trying to break the record.” He added, “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.” Although Parkrun officially characterizes its events as a “run and not a race” and does not categorize times as world records, this marks the second record achieved at the Belfast location within a year. Fellow Irish international runner Ciara Mageean, aged 32, previously established the best women’s time of 15 minutes 13 seconds there in December. Griggs, who gained prominence in athletics during the summer of 2021 by winning the European Under-20 3,000m title at 16 years old, was not selected for the Paris Olympics. In response, he has achieved personal bests in the 1500m, 3,000m, and 5,000m distances. Griggs is scheduled to compete at the Irish Cross Country Championships in Enniskillen on 17 November and is also focusing on the European Championships in Turkey. Griggs, who described his schedule as “busy but very enjoyable,” explained, “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.” He further added, “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. 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.”