Sarah Webster stormed to a mind-bending women’s 24-hour world record with gold at the World 24-hour Championships in France.

The 46-year-old produced one of the most outstanding ultra performances in British history in Albi, clocking 278.622km to take the title.

Her achievement surpassed the previous world record, set by Japan’s Miho Nakata at the last IAU championship in 2023, by almost eight kilometres.

It also bettered Patryca Berezknowska’s (POL) European record of 263.178 km and obliterated Jo Zakrzewski’s British record of 247.964 Km, which she passed with over three hours to go.

Webster, who claimed bronze at the 2014 World 100km Championships, was running only her second 24-hour event, following on from the 243.393km she clocked at the Crawley 24-hour race in April this year.

The East Sussex native conserved her energy from the start but was a top 10 contender throughout, moving up the field to take the lead at around 16 hours and the 200km mark and, despite noticeably tiring in the last two hours, held on for a remarkable victory.

Holly Ranson of Australia placed second with 274.172km – a new Australian and Oceania record – while former world record holder and early race leader, Nakata took the bronze medal with a distance of 271.987km, also surpassing her own previous record.

Fellow Briton Kelsey Price had the race of her life to take fourth place with 257.129km, while Sophie Power clocked 232.889km to finish 17th.

With gold, and two further top 20 victories, it meant that the British trio banded together to secure the overall team title for GB & NI ahead of Australia and Japan.