Northampton man breaks London Marathon Rubik's Cube record

A runner is awaiting confirmation he has broken the world record for solving the Rubik's Cube while running the London Marathon.

George Scholey, 22, originally from Northampton, said it felt "special" to smash the record by completing about 520 of the puzzles while completing the course.

The previous record was 420.

Mr Scholey has submitted details of his achievement to Guinness World Records for verification.

He was raising money for St John Ambulance and achieved the feat in the cube's 50th anniversary year.

On Sunday, 600 scrambled Cubes were split into groups of 50 and put into backpacks, stationed at checkpoints every two miles along the 26.2-mile (42km) marathon route, and handed to Mr Scholey by friends or family members.

He completed the marathon in a time of four hours and 25 minutes, capturing footage of each solved puzzle with a head-worn camera.

He will also be sending witness statements from people who saw him in action.

The Rubik's Cube was invented by Ernő Rubik, a Hungarian academic, to help architectural students learn about geometric forms.

Millions of people bought the toys, and spent hours rotating the blocks of coloured cubes until the squares on each side were the same colour.

Mr Scholey, a professional Rubik's Cube solver who now lives in east London, said: "When I realised I hit the target, it was a weight off my shoulders, although there were still 10 kilos of weight on them from carrying the cubes."

He said breaking the record in an anniversary year was a nice twist.

"The last cube - I did it 25 miles in, right opposite the London Eye, and it was the 50-year anniversary cube - the retro cube," he said.

"It had been made like the original '70s cube and I purposefully chose that so it would be a nice and special way to end it."

He said it has been "really exciting" seeing people donating to his fundraising page.

"Seeing donations come in has been great and there have also been lovely messages from people," he said.

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