A FORMER Sandown High School pupil has become a Guinness World Record holder.

Back in March, a team of fitness professionals and enthusiasts took on the challenge of beating the world record for the number of ‘Burpees’ completed by a team of six over a 24-hour period.

The exercise was invented in 1939 by US physiologist, Royal Huddleston Burpee, who used it to assess fitness.

The challenge demanded chest to floor press-ups, to squat thrusts, to standing position and jump, then reversed.

To pass adjudication, the team had to prove their chest was on the floor by lifting their hands before the press-up, making it far harder.

The previous record stood at 12,502 and the team decided to aim for 14,440, which worked out at 600 an hour.

Among those to take on the challenge was 29-year-old Olivia Hickey, who moved to the Isle of Wight from Croydon at the age of five.

She was schooled in Bembridge, and later Sandown, and attended The Gillian Cartwright School of Dance, competing in competitions in the South and in London.

She now works at Fitness First, Spitalfields Tower, taking classes and running her own private lessons.

It was through this connection that she got involved in the project.

“A friend dropped out and asked me to take her place,” said Olivia.

“There were six weeks to go, which I thought was plenty of time.

“I later learned that the others had been preparing for two years.

“Training was tough and time-consuming, and often left me in a mental battle with myself about actually finishing the session.

“My previous training was pretty adaptable, though, so I had a very good engine foundation anyway”.

Olivia completed the challenge with two doctors, Nick Gibbons and Rich Breeze, Greg Ryan, a physiotherapist, Jess hodges, a lawyer, and Misty Botha, owner of The Strength Room in Canning Town where the event took place.

One of Nick’s old rugby-playing colleagues was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease (MND), so the group embarked on the challenge to raise money toward MND research.

“Liv has been a bundle of energy and positivity, and absolutely smashed her burpee sets out of the park,” said Nick.

“She rounded off an amazing team, and we were so lucky to have her.”

The final hour was completed to a background of AC/DC classics.

Nick completed the final minute to bring the total to 15,293, smashing the record by 2,791, and their own target by 853.