BRISTOL & West AC middle distance runner Thomas Baines has written himself into the club’s history books after breaking a 42-year-old record.
Competing at the British Milers’ Club Gold Standard meeting in Manchester Baines (pictured) won the 800m B race in 1min 49.08secs to shave 0.52secs off his previous best set just a few days before.
More significantly the time beat the previous record of 1:49.3 set by Paddy McGrath in 1979 at Loughborough. The time also lifts Baines, who is a student at Bristol University, to third in the South West Rankings.
“That’s a grand effort,” said club historian Mike Strange.
At the same meeting B&W clubmate Callum Jones moved to seventh in the South West Rankings over 1500m after running a personal best of 3mins 46.35sec.
Jones carved almost two seconds off his 2020 best when finishing third and is now the second quickest in the club behind Mike Wilsmore (3:45.16).