Ashley Couper's remarkable run of form continued at the weekend when she slashed another two seconds off the national 1,500 metres record.

The Bermudian, who runs for Stanford University, knocked a whopping five seconds off the mark two weeks ago at the Mt Sac Relays in California and predicted in a Royal Gazette interview last week that she could go even faster.

Couper's record stood at 4:23.05 until Friday night when she crossed the line in 4:20.59 at the Cardinal Track and Field Invitational.

"This weekend has been awesome,'' said the 23-year-old, who also ran a personal best in the 800m at another meet on Saturday. "The 1,500m went really well on Friday night. I was in the race with a great field which included the National Indoor Champion in the mile and some elite runners.

"We went out at a good pace but when our rabbit dropped out at 600 metres the whole pack slowed down. But I didn't really realise it because I thought, `I'm running with these great women, I must be running fast! "I think it was after about 800 metres that my coach yelled to me that the pack was slow, that I needed to stay awake and pick it up.'' With those words ringing in her ears, Couper decided it was time to make her move.

"The pack picked it up and we had a really fast last lap -- 67 seconds I think. I placed sixth overall and finished in a time of 4:20.59,'' she said.

Delighted to break the record once again, Couper said she hoped the time would be enough for her to qualify for the NCAA championships later this year.

However, the run did come at some cost.

"The whole race was really aggressive. There were elbows being thrown the whole race, people tripping up and stumbling,'' she said. "I have spike marks all the way up the side of my right leg!'' The next day saw Couper run in the 800m in a meet against local rivals, the University of California at Berkeley.

"By the time we ran the 800m we were dominating the meet by a lot,'' she said. "Five of us from Stanford ran the 800m and only three can score, so we just needed to get three in the top five.

"We all warmed up together and I think we totally intimidated the two Cal women. We were all pretty relaxed, I think. There was a lot less pressure and we went one, two, three, four, five! "I ran a personal best of 2:07.52 and won the race.'' Meanwhile, fellow Bermudian athlete Terrance Armstrong broke the national 5,000 metres record at the recent Penn Relays in Philadelphia.

Armstrong, running for The Enclave club, placed 19th overall in the event but his time of 14:38.15 was enough to break Kevin Pearson's previous mark of 14.40.9.

Record breaker: Bermuda's Ashley Couper (right), seen here at the front of the pack in the recent Penn Relays in Philadelphia, broke the Island's 1,500 metre record for the second time in a matter of weeks at the weekend.