World’s longest hug launches World Record London
Four couples have today taken the title for the world’s longest marathon hug – hugging continuously for 24 hours and 44 minutes – to launch World Record London, a new campaign that aims to make London a multi record-breaking city over the next six months.
Huggers began the record attempt at 07:30 yesterday (19 January) at the iconic Meeting Place statue at St. Pancras International station and finished this morning.
From an original group of six couples, four made it to the end to clinch the title – Lorna Tulett, star of BBC’s The Choir, and her army officer husband, Sergeant Bryan Tulett; stand-up comedian, Sanderson Jones and his friend, Mikey Lear; Xiang Xu and her husband, Andrew O’Brien; and best friends, Emily Brown and Rose Manley.
In addition to kicking off World Record London, the long embrace marks National Hugging Day tomorrow (21 January) and represents a warm welcome to the world to London in 2012.
On beating the record, Lorna Tullet commented, “We’re absolutely delighted as we never thought we’d make it this far! Our strategy was to stand in the most natural hugging position possible and the camaraderie of the group helped us to make it through – we played word games and sang songs and there was plenty of banter.”
Sanderson Jones said, “It’s a tremendously delirious experience! Mikey and I are stunned we made it. The hardest part was during the night, however some DVDs and entertainers kept us going – Groundhog Day was a particularly amusing watch!”
Louise Toms, from Guinness World Records said: “For any endurance marathon record Guinness World Records requires a minimum of 24 hours, which is the benchmark for true endurance. After examining video footage and keeping a very close eye on our participants, we are happy to officially confirm that all four couples are now World Record holders”
The record break culminated with an official announcement from Guinness World Records and a mass group hug. Sanderson Jones commented, “Maybe we should try and break the record for the longest group hug next year!”
World Record London is a calendar of unique and one-off record-breaking events taking place around the capital from now until July 2012 celebrating the capital’s most exciting attractions, venues, events and activities.
The capital will attempt to break new records for the world’s Biggest Easter Egg Hunt, the world’s Most expensive chocolate Easter egg and the world’s Longest photograph. Guinness World Records will also recognise London as the holder of a number of worldrecords. The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee River Pageant on Sunday 3 June hopes to break the record for the Largest parade of boats and London Marathon will be recognised as the world’s Largest fundraising event. Amongst some of the other records Ealing Studios will be recognised as the oldest working movie studio and Sherlock Holmes as the most portrayed fictional character. Further records will be announced over the coming weeks.
Londoners and visitors will be able to participate in some of the world records and will also be invited to join together and break their own records during the campaign by registering their records at Guinness World Records Challengers: http://challengers.guinnessworldrecords.com/
Last year, London welcomed over 25 million visitors who contributed over £16 billion to the London economy. In 2012, World Record London will harness the opportunity to showcase everything the capital has to offer in 2012 and that there has never been a better time to visit, invest or study in London.
Gordon Innes, CEO, London & Partners says:
“World Record London is a great way for us to warmly welcome visitors and celebrate all that is new and exciting about the capital in this very special year. With each record we are able to show the world just how much the city has to offer and highlight that there really has never been a better time to visit. The next six months will include so many highlights and what better way to start than with a hug from London!”
Visit www.visitlondon.com/worldrecordlondon to check out what’s coming up as part of World Record London and find out more about the capital.