Treadmill girl is told world record bid doesn’t count ... but only after she ran 521 miles!
SHE declared she would run 500 miles. Now Amy Hughes may have to run 500 more.
For the athlete has been left heartbroken after being told her world record attempt at completing the most miles on a treadmill in seven days is invalid – because of a lack of witnesses.
Guinness World Records officials said her bid – during which the runner, 29, clocked up 521 miles in the middle of a shopping centre – did not count, as it was her partner, Dave Keighley, who recorded her distance.
After ten months of deliberation, they have ruled that he was not an independent witness.
Miss Hughes said she ‘nearly broke’ herself by running for up to 20 hours a day in the Trafford Centre in Manchester last September.
The distance runner, who in 2014 ran 53 marathons in 53 days, was convinced she had beaten the previous seven-day treadmill distance of 517 miles.
She claims Guinness judges had ignored other witness statements from her physiotherapist, publicist and a friend.
Miss Hughes, from Handforth, Cheshire, said: ‘I’m absolutely heartbroken. I’m usually quite positive but I just broke down in tears and cried for hours.’
She explained: ‘ When we applied to do the record and wrote to Guinness, they gave us the option of paying for an adjudicator but it cost too much.
‘ The alternative was they would send us guidelines telling us exactly what to do. We took that option and put everything in place. We thought we’d done everything by the book. We went above and beyond what was asked of us and it’s still not enough. We streamed the whole
‘Absolutely heartbroken’
thing on a webcam 24/7, we were live on TV at one point, took pictures of all the key milestones. There were shoppers around all the time. It couldn’t have been more public.’
Guinness World Records defines an independent witness as ‘an individual who is neither affiliated with nor related to the individual or group attempting the record, the record organisers, participants, venue, or any persons involved with staging the event’.
Miss Hughes and Mr Keighley, who have been together for three years, are exploring options to appeal the decision.
She added: ‘ I’m so angry. I physically nearly broke myself doing this. I had 13 blisters on my feet at the end and slept for three hours a day.
‘It’s so upsetting. You would think with the mountain of evidence, that would be enough. I’m hardly pretending to have done it.’
A Guinness World Records spokesman said: ‘Unfortunately, the witness recording the majority of Amy’s progress was not independent of her, meaning we were unable to ratify the attempt as this is an infringement of a core policy for record validation.
‘We know how much time and dedication went into this record attempt and the motivation for Amy’s attempt is hugely admirable.’