Several of Australia’s most well known personalities attempted records yesterday in the name of fundraising.
The event, a day-long fundraising campaign for the Sydney Children’s Hospital Foundation, is known as the Gold Telethon. It overtakes the airwaves on the Nine Network as a cavalcade of stars from the music, TV, film, comedy and web worlds come together in the name of charity.
This year the Gold Telethon had a record-breaking flavour as three major attempts at Guinness World Records titles were organised during the proceedings.
The first involved Lisa Wilkinson, host of TODAY, high-fiving her way down a line of 20 volunteers. What’s so amazing about that? Well, she was blindfolded, and was hoping to break British sporting superstar Andrew Flintoff’s record of 6.53 seconds for ‘fastest time to high five 20 people whilst blindfolded’. Her respectable attempt came in at just over 11 seconds, so the cricketer’s record remained intact.
Then things became decidedly untidy. Karl Stefanovic, the other half of TODAY’s hosting team, donned a chicken suit and squatted above a raw egg. After a count of three he dropped himself onto the egg, crushing it flat, then continued crushing eggs as fast as he could. The record for ‘most eggs crushed by sitting in 60 seconds’ stood at 72, and Karl was travelling fine until exhaustion crept in around two-thirds of the way through the attempt. His final count was around 50 eggs crushed.
The last chance for a Guinness World Records title came when reporter and TODAY news presenter Sylvia Jeffreys and David Campbell, singer, stage performer and co-host of Nine’s Mornings, faced each other for the very messy finale. Sylvia’s throwing arm, which she says served her well on the netball court, was going to be tested as she and David attempted the ‘most shaving cream pies thrown in one minute’.
Alas, it was not to be. A nasty cross-wind meant many of the pies did not hit David square in the face, so could not be counted. The current record of 71 was not threatened, with just over 20 pies finding their target.
The fantastic news though, was that during a day of thrills and spills, over $4 million was raised for the Sydney Children’s Hospital Foundation. Anybody wanting to offer a donation can visit www.schf.org.au.
Pic: schf.org.au
