Man spends eight years making 23ft Eiffel Tower with matchsticks only for Guinness World Record entry to be rejected
You've got to feel for this dude - who spent eight years making a 23ft Eiffel Tower with matchsticks, only to find out that his Guinness World Record entry was rejected.
French man Richard Plaud dedicated nearly a decade of his life to show off some major patriotism to his country by somehow building a massive Eiffel Tower replica, made out of more than 700,000 matchsticks.
It's seriously impressive. Take a look in the video below:
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Despite showcasing immense patience and talent, it seems the Guinness World Records were not going to recognise his efforts.
The 47-year-old, as you'd imagine, was far from impressed, and took to Instagram to let off some steam.
He wrote (translated): “The Guinness Book judges gave their verdict, without having seen my tower in real life.
"It's pretty astonishing, and actually rather annoying. Not exactly fair play.
"What hurts most is that they don't acknowledge the work that I put in, the time I spent, the mental energy - because I can tell you it was not easy."
It turned out one tiny detail meant Plaud's years of work would go unrecognised.
Plaud wrote: "As referenced in the guidelines: The matches used must be commercially available. Proof of this must be provided as evidence.
“As the matchsticks were not commercially available, and were not recognized as matchsticks the attempt has been disqualified.
“BIG DISILLUSION, DISAPPOINTMENT AND INCOMPREHENSION.
"Tell me [how] the 706,900 rods stuck one by one are not matches!!?? And they are too cut to the point of being unrecognizable!!??
“Clearly, the English are really different......
"My matchstick tower is still tall and will be 7.19 meters for a long time!!!!! No offence to the English.
"They reckoned that my matches weren't available for sale. So they didn't qualify."
Despite the less than favourable ending to the story, some social media users praised Plaud for his work regardless.
“Congratulations their weak regulations don't matter it's the result that counts. You created a work of art,” one user wrote.
“Sir very nice job, bravo,” another simply added.
Mark McKinley, Director of Central Records Services at Guinness World Records, said: "It's the job of our records management team to be thorough and fastidious in reviewing evidence to make sure the playing field is level for everyone attempting a Guinness World Records title, however it does appear we might have been a little heavy handed with this application.
"We will make contact with the record holder again as well as review rules for similar records as a priority, to see what can be done."
LADbible has contacted Guinness World Records for comment.
Topics: Travel, Guinness World Record
Anish Vij