Soh Rui Yong broke the men's 5,000m national record with a 14min 44.21sec effort at the Singapore Athletics (SA) All Comers Meet 4 yesterday. His record is pending ratification by SA.
The previous mark of 14:51.09 was set by Mok Ying Ren in Tokyo in 2011.
With yesterday's result, Soh, 29, now holds four national marks. His other records are in the men's 10,000m (31:15.95, set in 2014), half-marathon (1:06:41, 2019) and marathon (2:23:44, 2019).
At the SA All Comers Meet 2 in March, Soh's first track race in almost two years, he won the 1,500m in 4:05.19 and qualified for the now-postponed SEA Games at the same time. He also clocked a new personal best (PB) of 4:01sec in the 1,500m last week.
After the race, he said: "I was super happy because I've set the records in the 10,000m, half-marathon and marathon, so the 5,000m was the last distance record that I had yet to break.
"One point I'm satisfied with is that I set the record in Singapore. Usually, none of the distance running records are set here because of the heat and humidity. It was quite warm today but I didn't want to think so much about that.
"So I want to show Singapore runners that we are able to run fast here, we just have to get into shape and have good preparation."
To prepare for the race, Soh had been training twice a week with fellow distance runners Ethan Yan and Jeevanesh Soundararajah, who are both trained by Soh's old coach Steven Quek.
He did light jogs by himself the rest of the week, with one long run on Saturdays.
He also gave credit to his training partners and Quek, who gave him the confidence he would achieve his goal.
Soh said: "It's nice to have partners to do the hard sessions with and having a coach to oversee training. I've known Mr Quek for very long. It's nice to have a familiar face in training to give you encouragement.
"I think that believing you can set a national record is difficult and psychology is always a big part of the game is.
"Mr Quek came to me and said he believed I could break the national record so having him say that was a big boost psychologically. It added pressure too but, in this case, it was positive pressure."
After seeing Soh in training, Quek was confident that his charge would break the 5,000m national record in Singapore.
The veteran distance running coach, who coached Soh in junior college and part of university, added: "He is very driven, that's why he's able to achieve all these goals. He's a fighter. He fights to overcome obstacles and he's driven, that's why he's still competing at his age."
