Running News Daily

90-year-old man sets new 1500m world record

At a masters athletics meet in Western Australia on Thursday, Perth runner David Carr set a men’s 90+ 1,500m world record (the metric mile) of 7:32.95, breaking the previous record by five seconds. Carr’s world record-setting time equates to a speed of 12 km/h and a pace of around five minutes per kilometre.

Carr, who celebrated his 90th birthday in June, has now broken five 90+ world records this summer: the 1,500m, 3,000m (16:20.96), 5,000m (29:47.83), 10,000m (62:48.93) and 2,000m steeplechase (12:50.43).

The previous 1,500m record, of 7:37.05, was held by Toshio Kamehama of Japan, set at the Japan Masters Championships in 2015.

According to an online age-graded running calculator, Carr’s graded time is faster than Hicham El Guerrouj’s 1,500m world record of 3:26.00. His age-graded result would be 3:16.00, which is remarkable.

Carr has been involved with athletics since 1948; he competed during his service in the Australian Navy and his time as a teacher. In 1974, he began competing in the masters division and went to his first Masters World Championship in 1980, since then he has won a healthy number of gold medals in middle distance events.

The Australian has had several attempts at the 90+ 400m and 800m record, but has come up short. Both the 400m and 800m 90+ records are held by Canada’s Earl Fee, (400m – 1:29.15, 800m – 3:34.93).