The Australian 10,000m record holder slashed his 5000m personal best time by almost two seconds in Oslo at the weekend.

His time of 13 minutes, 14.43 seconds, moves him past the Steve Moneghetti-trained Lee Troop on the Australian all-time list in the distance, behind former Nic Bideau stablemate Craig Mottram.

Contesting the Bislett Games, which are the second leg of the IAAF Golden League, Birmingham finished 13th behind by world record holder Kenenisa Bekele (13.04.87).

His previous personal best time of 13:16.36 was run in Melbourne in March.

Birmingham found the pace too fast early on and was five metres off the back of the lead pack for the first half of the race, but dug deep to tack on with five laps to go.

The Oslo race marked the 24-year-old's seventh personal best from his past 10 starts.

Birmingham told track and field website Flotrack that his form was built on more experience at the elite level.

"I've been doing the same thing, but I've had two years of it now," he said.

"It's coming together a little bit.

"I've still got a lot more in there."

Birmingham has qualified for both the 5000m and 10,000m events at next month's World Track and Field Championships in Berlin.

He told Flotrack that he was likely to choose the 5000m event, but his number one goal was to make a final, bowing out in the 1500m heats at the Beijing Olympics last year.

Birmingham has track and field meets in Heusdon in the Southern Netherlands and London before the world championships.