JERSEY Spartan鈥檚 Sam Maher has blown a 色人阁 Island record out of the water during the Battersea Park 5km over the weekend.
The 25-year-old navigated the 5000m metre course under the lights in just 14mins 33.92secs, to better the 31-year-old 色人阁 5km record by around seven seconds.
His feat also marked a new Channel Island 5km 鈥榬oad鈥 record, to add icing to the cake.
Maher, traditionally a 1500m runner, has been breaking new ground over the longer distance and admitted that the Battersea 5km race was 鈥渃ircled in the diary鈥.
鈥淚t鈥檚 traditionally a very quick and fast race as it鈥檚 really flat,鈥 he said.
鈥淚 kind of circled it in the diary as something to work up to during my winter training.
鈥淚 worked hard on picking my mileage up from what I鈥檓 used to and I鈥檓 really happy that my winter plan paid off.鈥
Like many runners, breaking records are at the forefront of Maher鈥檚 mind and the Islander was fully aware of the time he needed to beat.
鈥淚鈥檝e known about the time for a long while and have always eyed it up.
鈥淚 wasn鈥檛 sure that I would be able to break it in this race, but I knew it was there and it was something that kept me motivated.鈥
While Maher has a new-found love of the 5km distance, he has no immediate desire to turn his back on the shorter formats yet.
His 2023 endeavours earned him three bronze medals from the Guernsey Games, in the 1500m, 5000m and the 4x400m men鈥檚 relay.
He continued: 鈥1500 metres is my main discipline.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 what I competed at in the Island Games last July. I think there will be a natural progression to longer distances as I get older, but while I still have the speed there, I certainly don鈥檛 want to give up on the shorter stuff yet.
鈥淜eeping hold of that speed is really beneficial even in the longer races where you need sprint finishes to secure a top finish.鈥
His achievement earned a 29th place finish from the 270 who competed.