The organisers asked Rebecca Romero to stop after receiving medical advice. The doctors said there was a possibility that there could have been long term damage to her knees which could have affected her career, including her participation in the 2012 Olympics in London.
Doctor Bentley Waller said Romero had had what he called a severe reaction.
"It was a difficult decision to make [to pull her out] because of the commitment she'd put in, but in the long run it's the right decision".
Romero said: "I'm gutted. James and I were nearly up to 30 hours and 500 miles [into the attempt]. I'd been doing some preventive physio work because of some tightness and discomfort in my knees, but it was decided the volume of work was too much, and there was no time to recover and my knees are part of my day job. Before today I didn't have any pain, and I really wanted to succeed. "
James Cracknell added "She's hugely devastated... It was frustrating: it wasn't easy [out there]. Telling her [the event was over] was a job no one wanted, but it had to be done."
Cracknell said he would sincerely like to try what he called "the special route" again at some stage, as he was heartened by the number of people who came out to support their record attempt. However Romero said she won't be there next time: "This was a big event, my one opportunity."
The riders had reached Johnstonebridge in Scotland, when the attempt was aborted, 29 hours after leaving Land's End. Cracknell said the pair were still ahead of schedule at that point.
- The distance by road from Land's End to John O' Groats is 874 miles and takes most cyclists around ten days. The current non-stop record for a mixed tandem is 2 days, 3 hours, 19 minutes and 23 seconds.
TRAVELLERS could face major disruptions at airports and ports after a union body said that immigration officials working for the UK Border Agency had voted in favour of strike action.
The Public and Commercial Services Union said yesterday that 78% of votes in a ballot backed a walkout over the merger of customs and immigration staff. According to the union, the
move would see immigration staff in roles they are not trained for, and changes to shifts would also result in less take-home pay. The vote raises the possibility of a two-day strike, commencing
on 04 Aug and involving 1200 staff.
Costa Rica is the happiest place in the world, according to the UK’s New Economics Foundation. The country has a goal of building a new economy, "centered on people and the environment."
NEF ranks nations using the "Happy Planet Index," which seeks countries with the most content people. In addition to happiness, the index considers the ecological footprint and life expectancy of countries.
"Costa Ricans report the highest life satisfaction in the world and have the second-highest average life expectancy of the new world (second to Canada)," the organization said in a statement.
They "also have an ecological footprint that means that the country only narrowly fails to achieve the goal of ... consuming its fair share of the Earth's natural resources."
The Central American classical ecotourism destination, tucked between Nicaragua and Panama, offers lush rain forests and pristine beaches. Its president, Oscar Arias Sanchez, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for trying to help end civil wars in several Central American countries.
This year's survey, which looked at 143 countries, featured Latin American nations in nine of the Top 10 spots.
The runner-up was the Dominican Republic, followed by Jamaica, Guatemala and Vietnam.
While Britain ranked 74th, the United States snagged the 114th spot, because of its massive consumption and massive ecological footprint. The United States was greener and happier 20 years ago than it is today, the report said.
Other populous nations, such as China and India, had a lower index brought on by their vigorous pursuit of growth-based models, the survey suggested.
"As the world faces the triple crunch of deep financial crisis, accelerating climate change and the looming peak in oil production, we desperately need a new compass to guide us," said Nic Marks, founder of the foundation's center for well-being.
Marks urged nations to make a collective global change before "our high-consuming lifestyles plunge us into the chaos of irreversible climate change."
The report, which was first conducted in 2006, covers 99 percent of the world population, the statement said.
If you live in the UK and have yet to enter this fantastic competition to win a 10 Day Adventure to South Africa – experiencing everything from trekking to canoeing, safari to hot-air ballooning, diving and more – then enter now and tell your friends about it too: http://www.natgeoadventure.co.uk
China’s list of engineering achievements will see another impressive addition today, when the country’s first underwater museum opens near Chongqing.
The Baiheliang Museum, built at a cost of CNY189 million (US$27.6 million), is located 40 metres below the surface of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, near another of the country’s remarkable structures, the Three Gorges Damn.
According to a Xinhua report, the complex consists of the museum, a connecting passageway, an underwater pier and an on-land exhibition room. Construction of the main part of the museum was completed in 2006, before the dam raised the water level last year.
Baiheliang, literally meaning ‘White Crane Ridge’ is a smooth stone ridge 1,600 metres long and 25 metres wide which was created about 1,200 years ago, to measure changes in water levels. It is engraved with inscriptions about China’s longest river dating from 763AD to the early 20th Century.
Main attractions are 20 fish sculptures that serve as waterlevel markers and about 30,000 characters of Chinese poems from different dynasties. It is claimed to be the world’s oldest hydrographical survey device and is one of the four state-level national treasuresin the Three Gorges area.
