Cardiff’s Charlotte Arter continued her excellent season with another top-class display in America to claim second place in the event dubbed the fastest 5K in the world.

The newly crowned Welsh 10K champion was competing at the prestigious Carlsbad 5000 road race in San Diego on Sunday.

Previous winners include Ethiopia’s Olympic and World Championship 5,000m gold medallist and former world record holder Meseret Dafar and current world record holder Tirunesh Dibaba, who has won three Olympic and five World Championship golds.

Arter, who won the Brecon Carreg Cardiff Bay 10K last weekend when she also claimed the Welsh title, clocked a time of 16:01 over the picturesque 5K seafront course.

The race was won by Kenya’s Sharon Lokedi in 15:48.

Worcester AC’s Jenny Nesbitt, who is in America on a Welsh Athletics endurance training camp alongside Arter, finished seventh in a time of 16:38.

The men’s race, previously won by the likes of marathon world record holder Eliud Kipchoge, saw Cardiff’s Jake Heyward finish seventh in a time of 14:25 behind Kenyan winner Edward Cheserek, who matched the IAAF 5k road world record of 13:29.

Cheserek is the boyfriend of women’s winner Lokedi, who is a senior at university in Kansas and won the NCAA 10,000m title last year.

Heyward’s coach and Cardiff AC team-mate, James Thie, won the men’s Master’s 40 and over race, in a time of 15:18.
Thie’s triumph came just a week after winning the M40 1500m title at the World Indoor Masters Athletics Championships in Poland.