On Thursday 26th of February, College runners secured their place in the history books (specifically the Guinness Book of World Records) for the fastest Marathon Relay in the world!

Shaving almost two and half seconds off the current world record, one hundred students from Years 8 to 14 took part in the event at the Mary Peter’s track in Belfast.

The occasion was organised by A2 Sports Science students as part of their course. For the coursework component of the A Level, they are charged with developing an active leisure event. The ambitious sixth formers decided to run an event with two objectives: one that included as many pupils as possible as well as reflecting positively on the College. St Malachy’s has a long tradition of producing elite runners and the current athletics team is amongst the finest in the country (and indeed the world, after their endeavours at the ISF World Schools’ Cross Country Championships in Israel last year) therefore it made sense for students to set their sights on a world record attempt.

With Lord Mayor, Nicola Mallon, invited to start proceedings on the track, the boys completed the marathon relay in an impressive time of 1:54:39, smashing the previous record of 1:56.54 with time to spare!

Well done to all those who took part in the event and congratulations to students (and teachers) on this tremendous achievement.