Athletics Australia – NEWS – Birmingham breaks Australian record

Beijing Olympian Collis Birmingham has sliced two seconds off the 12-year-old Australian 10,000m record in finishing second at the Brutus Hamilton Invitational at the University of California, Berkeley.

Slashing more than 40 seconds from his lifetime best, Birmingham clocked 27:29.73 to just shade Shaun Creighton’s national record of 27:31.92 set in Melbourne in November 1996.

The 24-year-old finished behind Sam Chelanga of Kenya who stopped the clock at 27:28.48.

Since representing Australia over 5000m at the Beijing Olympics, Birmingham has produced a string of impressive results, including the defeat of Craig Mottram when placing 3rd in the inaugural Great Australian Run 15km road race in November prior to capturing his first Australian 5000m title in Melbourne in February –  a performance that has earned selection for the world championships in Berlin in August.

Queenslander Michael Shelley also produced a lifetime best in finishing 9th in 27:59.77.

In other results, Australian 10,000m champion Lara Tamsett followed her personal best over 5000m last week with a personal best in the 10,000m, with a run of 32:27.23.

Athletics Australia – NEWS