Costumed runner films his world record run, catches viral moment on video
Oliver Williams, a local Welsh runner competing at the Cardiff half-marathon, caught a viral video moment while filming a superman record.
Not everyone films an entire half-marathon with a GoPro strapped to their chest so it was rather remarkable that Oliver Williams was able to capture a viral moment on video on Saturday at the IAAF/Cardiff University World Half-Marathon Championships.
The Cardiff, Wales resident was attempting to set a record for fastest half-marathon in a superman costume and captured footage of eventual winner Geoffrey Kamworor getting trampled on the start line.
The video has been seen more than 25,000 times since being posted to YouTube on Sunday and shows the Kenyan fall to the ground before weaving his way through the pack of runners and back to the lead group. With cuts to his knees, he won in near course record time 21.1K later.
Footage can be seen below:
Williams, meanwhile, ran 1:15:39 and ran in a superman costume to raise money for Velindre Cancer Centre, a local treatment facility. He eclipsed the previous record by 1:51, which is expected to be ratified after Williams fills out the appropriate paperwork. He filmed the entire race with a GoPro so proof of running this record should not be an issue.
“It was good fun except for the weather,” says Williams of the race as rain and wind were a factor over the final 5K of the race.
I did it!Official chip time of 1hr 15mins 39secs, I had to beat 1hr 17mins 30secs, so hopefully that’ll be a new record…
Posted by Oliver Williams on Sunday, March 27, 2016
Describing the sight of Kamworor passing him, Williams wrote on Facebook that the world champion “absolutely flew past me a few seconds later, ducking in and out of the mass runners to catch up with the leaders again, very impressive.”
To Williams’ credit, he can now he can say he was beating the world champion for a brief moment in a race. The IAAF world half-marathon championships were held on Saturday morning in Wales and recreational runners also took part in addition to the elites. The Canadian women finished sixth as a team led by Lanni Marchant in 20th.
RELATED: Photogenic Wall Street analyst Rex Woodbury dresses for success in record run.
This is what Kamworor’s fall looked like from the front:
Want to see more photos of Kamworor’s fall and recovery to win the event? We’ve got that covered here.
Think the superman costume record is wacky? This guy is a bit more weird.
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