Birmingham was in stellar form at the Briggs Athletics Classic in Hobart on Saturday night to win the men’s distance event, breaking the meet record he set two years ago and the Tasmanian All-Comers’ record in the process.

He now just needs victory at the Melbourne Track Classic, which double as nomination trials, in four weeks’ time to automatically secure his spot.

The 27-year-old crossed the line in 13 minutes, 15.57 seconds to beat home training partner and Australian 5000m champion Ben St Lawrence (New South Wales) by nine seconds. Great Britain’s Nick McCormick was third in 13:32.88.

Birmingham broke free with five laps to go and held strong up the straight to win by more than 50m.

“It’s my second qualifier so a good performance in Melbourne and a win should see me headed to London hopefully,” Birmingham said. “Obviously it’s positive to be running well here as it provides good signs for things to come soon, both in Australia and overseas. I’ve come from a really strong training base and the work I have been doing off the track is starting to pay off. (Training at) Falls Creek was tough but I was sensible about how I went about it and this time shows that the method was right up there.”

Birmingham set his initial Athletics Australia Olympic qualifying time for 5000m with a time of 13:15.70 in Birmingham, Great Britain, on the IAAF Diamond League circuit in July.

He joins an exclusive club of athletes to have broken a meet record for Olympic A-qualifiers at the Briggs Classic, including Catherine Freeman (400m), Melinda Gainsford-Taylor (200m), Rohan Robinson (400m hurdles) and Donna MacFarlane (3000m steeplechase).

Meanwhile, Ballarat’s Kate Ryan was fifth in the women’s 400m hurdles.

Six-time Australian champion Lauren Boden clocked a season best, meet record and Tasmanian All-Comers’ record to capture victory in 56.07 – just outside the A-qualifier of 55.60. Ryan finished in 59.98 seconds. Fellow Ballarat-trained athlete Tyson Poppleston was 10th in the men’s 1500m with a time of 3:49.96.