New Zealander Aaron Pulford set a new national age-group 10,000m record in finishing fifth at the world junior athletics championships in Moncton, Canada, today (NZT).
Pulford's 29 minutes 14.23 seconds broke Ross Wilson's 19 and under record by nearly 13 seconds and carved an impressive 48 seconds off his personal best.
The title went to Dennis Chepkongin Masai (Kenya) in 27min 53.89sec from Ethiopian Gebretsadik Abraha with 28min 03.45sec. Kenya's Paul Kipchumba Lonyangata was third in 28min 14.55sec and Canadian Mohammed Ahmed fourth on 29min 11.75sec.
After Masai broke the race open, Pulford and Ahmed led the chasing pack, Pulford taking over the lead at the 1300m mark.
He held this spot for four laps until the Kenyan and Ethiopian athletes upped the pace.
Pulford has a remarkable range of performance from 1500m to the half marathon, and showed impressive big-race temperament today.
In other events, Siositina Hakeai qualified for the women's discus final with a solid 49.37 metres after two weeks ago setting a New Zealand 16 and under record of 51.52m.
Alex Jordan qualified for the next round of the men's 400m after finishing third in heat one in 47.50 seconds, his time ranking him 17th overall from the six heats.
Earlier in the day, Angela Smit was among the fastest qualifiers over 800m, clocking two minutes 7.13 seconds to win the second of five heats.
The time, among the quickest time in the first round of racing, was nearly four seconds slower than her best.
