Meet the record-breakers

The fastest, the youngest, the thinnest, the biggest - it can only be the jaw-dropping world of the new Guinness Book of Records

MOST FLEXIBLE MAN

Daniel Browning Smith (US) can turn his torso 180 degrees and squeeze through a tennis racket in 15 seconds.

LARGEST CARD TOWERS

On 12 December 2004, Bryan Berg (US) built a house of cards measuring 4.22x3.6x2.61m that used 162,000 cards. He also built the card structure with the most storeys - 131 - in November 1999.

LARGEST RIDEABLE MOTORBIKE

Gregory Dunham (US) has built a rideable motorcycle 3.42m tall that weighs 2.94 tons.

BIGGEST COLLECTION OF SICK BAGS

Niek Vermeulen (Holland), 70, a retired consultant, has 5,034 sick bags from around 1,000 airlines.

NARROWEST WAIST

Inspired by her love of Victorian clothing, Cathie Jung (US), who stands at 172cm (5ft 8in), has "trained" her waist to an incredible 38.1cm (15in) with a corset and 53.3cm (21in) without.

TALLEST DOG

Gibson, a harlequin great Dane, was measured at 107cm tall on 31 August 2004. His owner is Sandy Hall of Grass Valley, California.

TALLEST LIVING MAN

Xi Shun (China, b 1951) measured 2.36m (7ft 8.95in) when examined on 15 January 2005 at Chifeng hospital, Inner Mongolia, China.

FASTEST BALLOON MODELLING

John Cassidy (US) blew up and tied 654 balloons into 30 shapes (including dog, sword and moose) in one hour.

MOST POWERFUL LUNGS

On 16 September 1998, Manjit Singh (UK) inflated a standard meteorological balloon weighing 1kg to a diameter of 2.44 m in 42 minutes at Rushley Pavilion Centre, Leicester.

YOUNGEST PERSON TO VISIT BOTH POLES

Jonathan Silverman (US, born 13 June 1990) reached the North Pole on 25 July 1999 and the South Pole on 10 January 2002, at the age of 11 years and 211 days. Both trips were tourist expeditions.

'Guinness World Records 2007' is published 29 September 2006, priced £18