Leonard breaks men’s British 10km record

European Under-23 champion Rory Leonard has knocked six seconds off the British men’s 10km record set by Mo Farah.

The Morpeth Harriers runner, 23, ran a time of 27 minutes 38 seconds at the Valencia 10km.

But that was only enough to finish 15th on a 10km course widely regarded as one of the fastest on the international road circuit.

The previous British record was set by Farah in 2010 and equalled by Emile Cairess in 2022.

Fellow Briton Nick Rose clocked 27:34 in 1984 but that time was never ratified as a record.

The 10km record refers to times set in road events and is different to the 10,000m, which is on the track. Farah retains the British 10,000m record of 26:46.57.

Sweden’s Andreas Almgren won in Valencia in a European record time of 26:53, while Kenya’s Hellen Lobun won the women’s event in 29:30.

Great Britain’s Olympic triathlon champion Alex Yee, who is training to run this year’s London Marathon, finished 29th in a time of 28:07, while fellow Briton Amy-Eloise Neale was 14th in the women’s race in 31:15.

Leonard represented Great Britain in the 10,000m at last year’s European Championships, finishing 19th, while he won the European Under-23 title over the same distance in Espoo, Finland, in 2023.