Robbie Britton breaks British 24-hour record which has stood since 1982

Ultrarunner and coach Robbie Britton has broken the 24-hour British record at Italy's 24 Ore di Torino – a 24-hour continuous race, involving laps of Ruffini Park, in Turin.

Britton covered a distance of 277.439km to take the race record and David Dowdle's 41-year-old British 24-hour record. Dowdle ran 274.480km at the Gloucester 24hr Track Race back in 1982 – a world record at the time.

During the race, Britton sustained an average pace of 5:11min/km for 24 hours.

He fuelled with 90g of carbs per hour – with sports nutrition from Precision Hydration, plus a little rice, pasta and sweets. And he donned the carbon Nike AlphaFlys – the shoe worn by Kipchoge to break the sub-2 marathon.

On Sunday, 159 people took part in the 24-hour event, which also involves an eight-hour race and 100km race. In the 24-event, Italy's Pietro Custodi finished second behind Britton with 206.736km, to take the Italian record for the SM60 category, while compatriot Turinese Oliviero Alotto completed the podium with 195.603km. Italy's Lisa Borzani came fourth on her debut over the distance, covering 185.379km.

Britton says his journey to taking the record in Turin has been 'long and undulating'. He last PB'd over the distance in 2015, at the World 24hr Champs where he covered 261.140km to take bronze. Speaking to RW after taking the record he said:

'The British 24hr record has been a goal for me for so many years, it’s a dream come true to finally run it. It wouldn’t have been possible without my crew on the day, Nats, Jamie, Sarah-Jayne and my Ma Sharon – and 24hr running really is a team sport. My coach – and Runner's World coach – Tom Craggs has played a massive part, too.

'The psychological battle was as hard as the physical one out there this weekend. The legs start hurting early doors and you still have 18 hours to go. The mind wants you to stop, or slow down, and I had to take it one hour at a time to convince myself it was all worth it, that the record was still possible. I love 24hr running, but at times in the race I just wanted to curl up in a ball on the side of the road.

'The last six to eight hours, when I had to keep working hard the whole time to maintain record pace, it was really tough. Only when I actually crossed the line with 274.5km on the board did I relax a little and sped up to grab a couple more kilometres before the final gun went off.

'It means the world to me to be able to call myself a British record holder. Proper bucket list stuff.'