The 10 best world records
tallest statue 
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's iron statue in Gujarat has entered the Guinness list for being the tallest statue. Statue of Unity rises to 597 feet and 1 inch
tallest dog
the lankiest canine in recorded history was Zeus, a great dane that measured 1.12 metres (44in) tall until his death last year. The lofty mutt was owned by the Doorlag family from Michigan and his record-breaking career began when Kevin Doorlag was watching TV: “We saw [previous title-holder] Giant George on Oprah Winfrey and I was like, ‘Man, Zeus has got to be right up there.’ We tried to measure him but he’s such a baby, he was scared of the tape measure.” Zeus was indeed a gentle giant and a part-time pet therapy dog. When he stood on his hind legs, he was 2.2m (7ft 4in) tall, more than a third of the height of an average giraffe.Heaviest onion
“The world is just a great big onion,” sang Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell. It’s a lyric that rings especially true in Leicestershire, where champion gardener Tony Glover’s eye-watering 8.5kg (18lb 12oz) beast could make an entire kitchen cry. It took more than a year to grow, measures 81cm (32in) around and would be enough to make 250 onion bhajis. Glover, 50, has been cultivating veg since his teens and really, ahem, knows his onions: “I give them a nitrogen-rich food and have to make sure the humidity is just right. I’ve also got grow-lights fitted to the greenhouse to simulate the sun when the days get shorter.” That’s shallot of effort.Tallest man ever
Fastest women’s marathon
She might be an asthmatic with an awkward gait and unorthodox nodding style, but Cheshire’s mighty Paula Jane Radcliffe MBE is one of our last remaining athletics record-holders. The three-time London Marathon winner shattered the record during
the 2003 race with a time of 2 hours 15 minutes and 25 seconds - more than 3 minutes below anyone else in history. Race director Dave Bedford, a former 10,000m world champion himself, called it “the greatest distance running performance I’ve seen in my lifetime; it ranks in my mind alongside the impact of Bob Beamon’s long jump in 1968”. Radcliffe’s mark has stood for 12 years and she continues to hold the three fastest women’s marathon times ever
Oldest person ever
Jeanne Calment, once described by President Jacques Chirac as “a grandmother to the French people”, lived to the grand old age of 122 years 164 days. Born in 1875, she witnessed the construction of the Eiffel Tower and once sold some coloured pencils to Vincent van Gogh, describing him as “dirty, badly dressed and disagreeable”. Calment led an active life, taking up fencing at 85 and still cycling at 100. At the age of 114, she played herself in the film Vincent & Me (990) - becoming the oldest actress to appear in a motion picture. She said her keys to long life were olive oil, port and chocolate. Asked on her 120th birthday what she expected of the future, she replied: ”A very short one.” She finally died in 1997.
Bike balancers
With 58 people on one motorbike, the record set by ASC Tornadoes Motorcycle Team from Karnataka in November 2017 remains unbroken.
Straw man
Karate Nataraj from Salem holds the record for stuffi ng the maximum number (650) of straws into his mouth without using his hands
Iron stomach
Pandit Dhayagude of Mumbai bore the weight of 212 motorcycles as the bikes ran over him one after
the other in August 2016
Nilanshi Patel, a 16-year-old from Gujarat, continues to hold the Guinness record for the longest hair on a teenager. Her hair length — 5 ft 7 inches. It takes her half an hour to dry and an hour to comb these locks
