A man has been awarded the Guinness world record for building the tallest ever matchstick structure after his Eiffel Tower replica was initially rejected by organisers.
Richard Plaud spent eight years building a 23ft replica of the iconic Paris landmark and hoped to secure a place in the Guinness World Records (GWR) for the tallest matchstick sculpture. However, the organisation ruled that his creation was ineligible because most of the matchsticks used were not commercially available and were altered significantly from their original form.
Officials from GWR have now reversed their decision after admitting they were “too harsh on the type of matches needed in this attempt”.
Plaud, 47, from near Bordeaux, south-west France, said he had been on an “emotional rollercoaster” this week, after spending 4,200 hours building his model from more than 706,000 matches and 23kg of glue.
“For eight years, I’ve always thought that I was building the tallest matchstick structure,” he said.
Plaud started off by using commercial matches, cutting the head off each.
Tired of this tedious process, he asked the manufacturer if he could buy just the wooden sticks without the head, prompting Guinness to refuse his record.
Mark Mckinley, a director at Guinness World Records, said: “We’re really excited to be able to approve it ... We’re happy to be able to admit that we were a little bit too harsh on the type of matches needed in this attempt, and Richard’s attempt truly is officially amazing.”
Plaud, who works in the artworks and bridges department of the Charente-Maritime council in western France, finally completed his project on Dec 27, the 100th anniversary of the death of Gustave Eiffel, the original tower's engineer.
The previous record was held by Lebanese craftsman Toufic Daher, who created a 21ft model of the Eiffel Tower using six million matches.
