Pair gallop to a new sprint world record

Jul 6 2009 by Paul Loraine, The Journal

TWO North East athletes have smashed the world record for the 100m sprint while dressed a pantomime horse.

Former Commonwealth and European Gold medalist Jared Deacon returned to the track with running partner Paul Donaghy dressed as the front and back end of the horse.

And they had ‘neigh’ trouble breaking the world record in the costume at Gateshead Stadium, shaving over a quarter of a second off the old record of 13.51 seconds.

They galloped over the finishing line in just 13.23 seconds, raising more than £1,000 for St Oswald’s Hospice in Gosforth.

Paul, 41, who lives in Durham and trains with Durham City Harriers, said: “It was really hard because we couldn’t actually see where we were going – either of us. We could hear the cheer of the crowd at the end so we just headed for that.

“We’re delighted to get the new world record. I’ve done the Great North Run a couple of times in fancy dress and we were just flicking through the Guinness Book of Records and thought we saw one we could go for.

“Jared’s obviously got a bit of previous as a runner and I still keep myself fit so we thought we could go for a new world record.

“It’s great to get it because it wasn’t easy but we’ve really enjoyed doing it.”