World Record

The beach and bikinis go hand in hand. Knowing that, the North Ocean City Business Alliance and Spark Productions were inspired to plan Ocean City's first bikini parade - and they hoped to make it world-record sized. But since those initial plans, which called for more than 450 participants, China has set a new world record with 1,085 women on parade in bikinis. With just days to go, Brad Hoffman of Spark Productions said about 200 women have pre-registered for the event, which originally required a $10 donation but now is free.

Paralympics T. McFadden wins bronze in women's 100 Clarksville resident and Atholton graduate Tatyana McFadden lost for the first time in her four races at the London Paralympics when two Chinese athletes bettered the world record of 15.91 seconds in the women's wheelchair 100 T54 on Saturday. McFadden (16.15), who was born with spina bifida, finished third to Liu Wenjun (15.82) and Dong Hongjiao (15.86). McFadden's sister, Hannah , a 16-year-old Atholton student who was born with a congenital bone deformity and no left hip, finished eighth in 18.02.

Several world-record holders will be on hand for the first Track and Field Development Clinic at the Coppin Center Saturday.The list of speakers starts with Renaldo Nehemiah, the former Maryland star who is one week away from the 15th anniversary of his world record of 13.00 seconds in the 110-meter hurdles, but clinic director Don Webster is also bringing in an impressive group of quarter-milers.Larry James and Ron Freeman, the director of Coppin State's Eagle Club, were one-half of the United States' 1,600 relay team in 1968.

Paralympics Snyder earns silver, sets American mark Brad Snyder , 28, a Navy lieutenant who lives in Baltimore, earned a silver medal and set an American record in the men's 50-meter freestyle S11 at the London Paralympics on Saturday. Snyder, who lost his vision after stepping on an IED in Afghanistan last September while serving as a bomb defuser, finished in 25.93 seconds, which was 0.66 behind the world-record time of China's Bozun Yang . Snyder won the gold medal Friday in the 100 freestyle S11, finishing in 57.43 and beating Yang by 1.18.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Dan is no longer to be confused with Dave.Just ask Dave."Dan is doing so well, he's head and shoulders above everyone else right now," said Dave Johnson, a 1992 Olympic bronze medalist in the decathlon. "At any competition, he could set a world record. My job, basically, is to scare him into a world record. That's all any of us can do with him right now."Dan O'Brien has been on a mission since the million-dollar debacle on June 27, 1992, in New Orleans, where he missed the opening height in the pole vault of the U.S. trials and didn't make the Olympic team.

INDIANAPOLIS -- One world record isn't good enough for the kid. She has to get two.She can't drive to school yet. She can't even go to a slasher film without her parents' permission. But a 15-year-old who carries around a Troll doll for good luck, listens to a group named Erasure to clear her mind and still can recall vividly going to the hospital to have her tonsils removed is now a swimming superstar.Anita Nall of Towson gave two performances for the ages yesterday and qualified for the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain.

BARCELONA, Spain -- Mike Barrowman put the United States swimming team on top of the world.The U.S. squad needed a lift and Barrowman gave them a gold medal and a world record in the 200-meter breaststroke yesterday.The 23-year-old from Potomac, Md., bettered his year-old mark of 2 minutes, 10.60 seconds with a time of 2:10.1. Hungry's Norbert Rozsa won the silver medal in 2:11.23 and Great Britain's Nick Gillingham won the bronze with a time of 2:11.29."You really don't think about the record, you think about the place," said Barrowman.

Berlin -- As Sergei Bubka plants his pole and begins his 16-foot vertical flight, his young fans crane forward and hold their breath. But, at the last moment, the pole vault king's foot catches the bar, and he crashes unmajestically into the mat below."

As Michael Phelps prepared to warm up in the practice pool at the Olympic Aquatic Centre yesterday morning, Elvis Presley blared on a nearby loudspeaker. The King asked for "a little less conversation" and a "little more action," and the much-hyped Phelps delivered, giving the United States its first gold medal of the Athens Olympics and breaking his own world record in the 400-meter individual medley.Since making history at the last year's world championships, Phelps - who has a shot at surpassing Mark Spitz's seven-gold-medal showing in 1972 - had been the primary source of Olympic attention that didn't involve security or doping.

PHILADELPHIA -- The Santa Monica Track Club, with Carl Lewis anchoring, showed the way at the 98th Penn Relays at Franklin Field, setting a world record in the 4x200 relay of 1 minute, 19.11 seconds.The time would have been even faster, but Lewis, who had left his mark early, had to slow down to accept the baton from Floyd Heard. Mike Marsh and Leroy Burrell ran the other legs, and their passes were a springboard to the record in an event not on the Olympic schedule."My handoff to Floyd set the tone for the whole race," said Burrell, a native of nearby Lansdowne, Pa., who held the world 100 mark for two months last summer.

A persistent drizzle that occasionally morphed into a driving rain helped China retain its bikini parade crown Saturday, as only 325 women – out of the thousand-plus needed — answered Ocean City 's call to stage its own parade of world-record proportions. Still, spirits were high during the parade, which ran from the Princess Royale on 91st Street north to the Carousel Resort Hotel, a total of some 25 blocks. The weather even cooperated at least a bit when the rain let up just in time for the start at 3:15 p.m. Scores of bikini-clad infants, girls and women, ranging in age from a few weeks to well into their 60s, began the march from beneath U.S. and Maryland flags, cheering and showing off their best beach struts.

The beach and bikinis go hand in hand. Knowing that, the North Ocean City Business Alliance and Spark Productions were inspired to plan Ocean City's first bikini parade - and they hoped to make it world-record sized. But since those initial plans, which called for more than 450 participants, China has set a new world record with 1,085 women on parade in bikinis. With just days to go, Brad Hoffman of Spark Productions said about 200 women have pre-registered for the event, which originally required a $10 donation but now is free.

Advance registration is now open for those who want to help Ocean City set a record for the world's longest bikini parade. The Guinness World Record is now held by Panama City Beach, Fla., which stole it from Australia back in the spring. The folks Down Under plan to recapture the record with an event in October, so O.C. will really have to bring it. For the win, the town needs more than 450 women, teens and girls to show up in their two-piece swimsuits for the Aug. 25 event, part of the Uptown Beach Bash, a newly launched three-day festival feature art shows, music, food, a paddleboard regatta and a bike stunt show.

For the three Wigley brothers, the pool outing was more about doing cannonballs and pretending to be alligators than being part of a worldwide event. But for the staff at the Roger Carter Recreation Center in historic Ellicott City, Tuesday's focus was on gathering enough children learning about water safety to earn the only county-operated pool a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records. Operators of hundreds of swimming pools on six continents and in 17 countries, 48 states, and Washington, D.C., pooled their resources in a combined attempt to hold the World's Largest Swimming Lesson as a way to draw attention to preventing childhood drowning, according to wlsl.org.

Engineering students at the University of Maryland are claiming a world record after successfully lofting their human-powered Gamera helicopter a few inches above a gymnasium floor Thursday afternoon at the Comcast Center in College Park. The flight came during the team's final attempt, after two days of tests and near-misses. But just before 5:30 p.m., with pilot Judy Wexler, 24, pedaling furiously with her hands and feet, the gangly craft's rotors bent and pulled Gamera perhaps a foot into the air. In seconds it was over.

Michael Phelps and the 400-meter individual medley were supposed to be history. Not just yet. Phelps, who lives in Fells Point, said Monday that he will swim the event -- for the first time since winning Olympic gold in Beijing in 2008 -- at the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships. "Figure, why not give it a shot?" he said at a news conference in Irvine, Calif. "Like I said before, I'm probably not in the best shape I want to be to swim that race. We'll see if we can make worlds.

Advance registration is now open for those who want to help Ocean City set a record for the world's longest bikini parade. The Guinness World Record is now held by Panama City Beach, Fla., which stole it from Australia back in the spring. The folks Down Under plan to recapture the record with an event in October, so O.C. will really have to bring it. For the win, the town needs more than 450 women, teens and girls to show up in their two-piece swimsuits for the Aug. 25 event, part of the Uptown Beach Bash, a newly launched three-day festival feature art shows, music, food, a paddleboard regatta and a bike stunt show.

There's no escape in a bottle, but if wine is a passion for you — and you enjoy a challenge — make plans to spend the coming weekend in Pennsylvania. On Saturday, more than 50 wineries across the state will participate in the Great Pennsylvania Wine Toast, an effort to break the world's record for the largest wine tasting ever conducted. The current record of 17,429 was set by more than 400 pubs across the United Kingdom in 2009. The plan: Take a leisurely morning drive to Pennsylvania, stopping at more that one winery and taking along a picnic lunch.

Baltimore looks like it has a new record to smile about. For 11 minutes and 32 seconds, 261 people stood at the Maryland Science Center plaza Thursday to form what organizers said was the world's largest smiley face as part of the launch of a new city tourism campaign. The orange and black smiley face that resembled a lumpy jack-o-lantern grinned up at members of the media gathered on the roof of the science center as a police helicopter circled above. It appeared to be enough to earn the Guinness World Records title for the largest human smiley face.