Man accidently sets marathon record on crutches

A marathon runner who took part in an event on crutches said he was amazed to find he had set a new world record.

Chris Terrill, 73, from Wilmington in East Sussex, has run more than 50 marathons around the world, but needed a hip replacement after injuring himself playing cricket last year.

Regardless of being on crutches, he decided to run the Brighton Marathon as usual because he was already registered.

He completed it in a time of six hours, 11 minutes and 11 seconds, and later discovered he had beaten a previous record by more than 13 minutes.

Mr Terrill said he had no idea the record existed until his running club pointed it out to him.

The record has taken nearly a year to ratify because Guinness had to use the times recorded by the marathon’s organisers.

“If I’d known there was a record to be beaten, I’d have gone faster,” he said.

“People in the crowd who knew me asked me to stop and have a selfie. If I’d known I was after a world record, I’d have said ‘sorry, I’m in a hurry’.”

He added that he was inspired at the starting line by words of encouragement from the race starter, Paula Radcliffe.

“She looked at me in slight amazement and said, ‘good luck, man with crutches’,” Mr Terrill said.

“That was not only the highlight of my marathon, but pretty much the highlight of my entire sporting career, to be egged on by the great Paula Radcliffe.”

Mr Terrill has made a full recovery and no longer needs the crutches.

He uses his marathons to fundraise for the Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charity, and his next event will be the Brighton Half Marathon on 2 March.