Simon Bairu, shown here after dropping out of the 10,000 at last summer's world championships, broke a seven-year-old Canadian record on Saturday. (David J. Phillip/Associated Press)

Simon Bairu of Regina smashed the Canadian 10,000-metre record at an international track meet in Neerpelt, Belgium, on Saturday night with a stunning time of 27:30.90.

The race was won by Eritrea’s Kidane Tadesse in 27:06.16 ahead of the Kenyan duo of Menjo Kiprono (27:09:37) and Peter Kamais (27:11.09). The Canadian was sixth in the 32-man field.

Bairu, 24, had been scheduled to race in the MDS Nordion 10k race in Ottawa last week, a race he won a year ago, but skipped the event to make an attempt on the Olympic A+ standard. That standard is 27:47.31.

Born in Ryadh, Saudi Arabia, Bairu grew up in Regina before attending the University of Wisconsin in Madison. He was an NCAA cross-country champion for the Wisconsin Badgers. With his performance in Neerpelt, he beat Jeff Schiebler’s national record of 27:36.01 which has been largely unchallenged for seven years. He has also earned a place on the Canadian Olympic team.

His previous best time was 27:50.71 set a year ago at the Stanford Invitational.

Last season Bairu represented Canada at the IAAF World Championships 10,000m but dropped out early in the race due to an Achilles tendon injury. The injury persisted and forced him to miss the Canadian Cross Country Championships, a race he had won five consecutive times beginning in 2002.