A mum has contacted Guinness World Records after her five-year-old son beat his own 'world record'.
Jack Unsworth, five, from Fazakerley, ran 5km in a time of 23 minutes and four seconds at Croxteth Park parkrun on Saturday (January 28). Two weeks before that, Jack recorded a time of 23:58, which led his mum Vicky Unsworth to think he set a new world record for his age.
In 2014, Runner's World magazine reported that a five-year-old in Duluth, Georgia, ran 5km in 24:08, setting a single-age world record. Jack has now run the distance more than a minute faster than that, so Vicky believes there is every chance he is the fastest five-year-old on the planet.
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Saturday saw the Fazakerley Primary School pupil shave 54 seconds from his previous best and Vicky has tried to contact both England Athletics and Guinness World Records to acknowledge his speed.
Vicky, who is a running coach, told the ECHO: “It’s mad, I still can’t find anyone for his age faster.
"I’ve been in contact with the Guinness Book of Records. They said they’re not taking on new categories, because it isn’t an established record that he’s broken, I can’t do anything.
"If you go on and you can eat ten straws in a minute, that record could be there and you can break that. But because this isn’t established, we can’t do much about it.
"I then phoned England Athletics and they said because he’s not eight, he can’t even be a member."
To put his speed into context, running magazine Marathon Handbook says that a 'good' 5km time for an adult man is 22:31 and Running Level says that an 'advanced' time for a 10-year-old boy is 23:35, so Jack is almost faster than an advanced runner twice his age.
Even though Jack's speed might not be formally recognised for a few years, Vicky said he could be "one to watch". For now, she is glad he is enjoying running and not taking it too seriously.
She said: "I’ve been a running coach for ten years, I’ve seen really good results for years and I’ve coached people to run fast over the years. But none of it is what Jack does, Jack just loves it.
"The difference with Jack is that he’s only five. When I'm coaching, we get into talking to the runner about what's on their mind.
"A coach can talk to the runner about their feelings and their emotions, if they’re busy in work - all that kind of stuff that could affect them. Jack doesn’t need to grapple with any of that, he just runs as fast as he can and thinks it’s dead funny."
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