Potter in shock after potential world record

BETH POTTER stunned herself by running an unofficial five kilometres world record on the road at the Podium 5K in Lancashire on Saturday.

World Athletics officials will today begin a formal process to decide whether to ratify the Glaswegian’s time of 14 minutes and 41 seconds on the roads of Barrowford.

Her astonishing effort was two seconds inside the existing women’s global best of Kenya’s Beatrice Chepkoech and 10 seconds quicker than Paula Radcliffe’s old British mark.

“I can’t believe that happened. It was really good to get a race in the early season, but that was beyond my expectations,” she told BBC Radio 5 Live.

“It all started to sink in when I had about a kilometre to go and I saw the clock said 11 something and I was trying to do the maths in my head, I was convinced the clock was wrong, I couldn’t believe it.”

Potter has had to shrug off a decision to choose the British triathlon team for the Tokyo Olympics last year – so the 29-year-old has missed out despite her rapid surge up the world rankings since she switched from athletics in 2016.

“There’s been a lot of hard training. And a big point to prove,” she added.

Despite the time, Potter, 29, has yet to decide whether to hunt a Tokyo berth over 5,000 or 10,000 metres, having come 34th in the latter event in Rio five years ago. “I don’t know what I’m doing yet,” she said.

Although the Scot’s time was listed as official yesterday on the rankings of Run Britain, and the race was given a licensing permit, Podium 5k organisers will now be asked to provide formal evidence over a range of details including course measurement and doping control.

A world 5km record on the roads has only been officially recognised by World Athletics since 2018 with another Kenyan, Joyciline Jepkosgei, credited with an unofficial time of 14:32 clocked within a 10km in Prague in 2017.

Another record was broken yesterday in the women’s world half-marathon in Istanbul when Ruth Chepngetich of Kenya clocked 1:04:01.

Meanwhile, Kirsty Law moved into eighth place in the all-time UK discus list after throwing 58.82m at the Trafford Open in Manchester.