If you think you have achieved a world record in something really strange and unusual – like eating more pizzas than anyone else, or surviving for longest underwater – then you can ask Guinness World Records to recognise your claim. The people at Guinness World Records are not stupid. They want lots of evidence and look very carefully at it. They also check that someone else has not eaten more pizzas than you have, or survived for longer underwater. If they are satisfied, they will print your name in the next Guinness Book of Records and give you a certificate to hang on the wall at home, where your friends can see it.

　　Guinness World Records have investigated Robert Garside’s claim to have run all the way round the world. They looked at the photos and videos that he took, and at his credit card recipts, and other evidence. Last week they announced that, yes, he had indeed run round the world, and they gave him a certificate.

　　But some people – journalists and other long-distance runners – are not convinced. They claim that he made up the accounts of parts of his journey. One reporter says that Robert Garside was in a bar in Rio do Janeiro at a time when he claimed to be running across the Amazon basin. Another says that Robert Garside had himself admitted that he did not do everything he claimed to have done. But the Guinness people believe him, and maybe that is all that matters.

　　World records have been in the news this week. The England football team has had its worst ever start to the European Cup qualifying rounds. They have now beated Andorra (wow!) but there is still a long way to go. And the world’s tallest man, who comes from Mongolia, has got married. There were pictures of him and his bride in the papers this week. He is at least twice as tall as she is. I am sure they will be very happy together.