The children, athletes and dignitaries formed the human Olympic rings on the George Abbot School playing field, in Guildford, at 12.45pm.
The world record for the largest number of people to form the Olympic rings was broken on Thursday the 23rd June 2011 by 1,900 people, mostly children.
Surrey County Council organised the event at George Abbot School in Guildford, Surrey, England to celebrate World Olympic Day and the 400 day countdown to the London 2012 Games.
The children were joined in the record bid by Team GB athletes including Rachel Cawthorn (kayaking), Abigail Edmonds (kayaking), Sophia Warner (athletics) and Adelle Tracey (athletics) as well teachers and councillors from Surrey County Council.
High Level Photography were once again called upon to record another world record. High Level Photography have extensive experience in recording large scale world record. We were commissioned to record the Michael Jackson world record poster in December 2010.
The picture below was taken seconds before the rain arrived. You can see in the top left hand corner of the picture a menacing cloud and it’s rain!
The event also celebrated the final day of Surrey County Council’s P&G Surrey School Games 100 days of sport, which has seen 3,500 children compete in a wide variety of sports including mountain biking, motor racing, athletics and hockey. Olympic mascots Wenlock and Mandeville (pictures below) and the 1948 Surrey Olympic torch bearer Austin Playfoot attended the celebrations.
Denise Saliagopoulos, Surrey County Council’s Cabinet Member for Community Services and the 2012 Games, said: “It was fantastic to see so many children making a piece of Olympic history. There was a thrill of excitement in the air during the build up and it was spectacular to see everyone forming the Olympic rings. It started to rain just as the record was broken but it certainly didn’t dampen the spirits. There were smiling faces everywhere you looked.”
The event was a great success despite the rain. There has been great coverage in the national papers and it even made the local TV BBC South and ITV London news.
High Level van in action with ITN cameraman on top!!