Vancouver’s Kieran Lumb runs record-setting 3,000m in Seattle

Vancouver’s Kieran Lumb is making noise in his final NCAA season at the Univerity of Washington. At the Dempsey Indoor Meet in Seattle, Wash., on Saturday afternoon, Lumb ran a blazing personal best time of 7:43.27 over 3,000m to win the race by seven seconds, setting a new school record, meet record, NCAA and world lead in the indoor 3,000m. 

🚨 Your new NCAA LEADER and 𝑺𝑪𝑯𝑶𝑶𝑳 𝑹𝑬𝑪𝑶𝑹𝑫-𝑯𝑶𝑳𝑫𝑬𝑹 in the 3,000-meters 🚨

Kieran Lumb a dominant 7️⃣:4️⃣3️⃣.2️⃣7️⃣ to break Colby Gilbert’s six-year-old record.

The FOURTH record of the day and the first in a Championship event 🙌🙌#GoHuskies pic.twitter.com/4EDrCtKRmv

— Washington Track & Field (@UWTrack) January 15, 2023

Lumb, 24, set a strong pace early, gapping the field by almost 100m at the 2,000m mark. He ended up winning the race by seven seconds over Sam Prakel, who represented Team USA at the 2022 World Indoor Championships in the 1,500m. Lumb’s time broke a six-year meet and school record set by Colby Gilbert in 2017 (7:45.71).

His previous best of 7:45.50 came at the 2020 David Hemery Valentine Invitational at Boston University, which stands as the current U23 Canadian 3,000m record. Lumb was also the runner-up in the 10,000m at the PAC-12 Conference Championships last May, qualifying him for the 2022 NCAA Championships, where he finished 17th overall.

This isn’t Lumb’s first NCAA and world lead—last January, he ran a 3:55-mile, which at the time, was the second fastest by a Canadian male (now third). Cameron Proceviat of Burnaby, B.C., broke Nate Brannen’s indoor record of 3:54.32 at the Boston University Last Chance Meet in February 2022. 

Lumb is one of Canada’s top up-and-coming distance runners, and will be a name to watch on national teams for 2023 and 2024.