Nick Griggs Sets A New World’s Best Time For Parkrun

Northern Irish runner Nick Griggs has set a new world’s best time for parkrun, running 13:44 at Victoria Park in Belfast on Saturday 9 November 2024. 

The 19-year-old lowered the previous best by one second, to beat Team GB Olympian Andy Butchart’s time set in Edinburgh in June 2023. 

Parkrun classifies itself as a run and not a race, and none of their events qualify as official world records, but runners around the world still celebrate when there’s a new quickest time. Victoria Park now holds the world’s fastest parkrun times for men and women after Ciara Mageean ran 15:13 there in December 2023.

“I wasn’t going into it trying to break the record,” said Griggs in an interview with 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,” he said. With a sprint finish he managed to just get inside the previous parkrun best.

He called it a “hard run out’ ahead of the Irish Cross Country Championships, which take place in Enniskillen on 17 November 2024, and he followed up the record-breaking run by doing a ‘reverse parkrun’ tempo (in 15:29!) and then a cool down.

Griggs runs for Northern Ireland and has an impressive range of personal bests which rank him as one of the best in his country, including holding several U23 Irish records. He wasn’t selected for the Paris 2024 Olympics, but ran new personal bests at 1500m (3:35), 3000m (7:36) and 5000m (13:13) over the summer. His 13:44 parkrun was just six-seconds off of his 5km road personal best of 13:39. 

Image from Athletics Ireland