Photo by Jon Glover
On 25 October, 60-year-old Tommy Hughes (born January 8, 1960) stormed to the world record in the “Down Royal Marathon” in Northern Ireland: 2:30:02 hours! He improved the previous M60 marathon world record of 2:36:30 by six minutes. The Japanese Yoshihisa Hosaka has held this record since 2009.
Just last month, Hughes established an M60 half marathon world record in the Antrim Coast Half Marathon on 13 September with 1:11:09.
Tommy Hughes already caused a sensation last year with a top performance in the marathon. As a 59-year-old he set a new Irish M55 marathon record in Rotterdam in 2:30:15. One year later, he undercut this time by 13 seconds.
At that time, in 2019, he was still pursuing the plan to participate in the Berlin Marathon in 2020 in order to break the M60 world record with a time of less than 2:30:00, “as this is the fastest course in the world”. Corona thwarted his plans. Three seconds separated him from the 2:29 time in Northern Ireland.
Tommy is no stranger to the marathon scene. In 1992 he represented Ireland at the Olympic Games in Barcelona. His personal best time is 2:13.59.
A.H