World Skimming record

An American man has been named the new official world stone-skimming champion after casting a stone that skipped on water an astonishing 51 times.

Russell Byars, a 43-year-old engineer from Pennsylvania, shattered the previous world record of 40 skims on July 19 but it took officials from the prestigious Guinness Book of Records until this weekend to declare him the new record holder.

Mr Byars, known as "Rock Bottom" by his fellow stone-throwing aficionados, smashed the record at French Creek on the Allegheny River, about 70 miles north of Pittsburgh, with a prodigious effort which he estimated travelled 250 feet (76 metres).

Before his new record of 51 skims could be made official, experts from the Guinness Book of Records had to analyse film replays of Byars' toss, painstakingly checking the concentric circles in the water made by each skip.

"I actually threw 40 stones that day, but that was the first skip that I threw," a delighted Mr Byars told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which confirmed the record with Guinness officials.

The comparatively tame old record of 40 skims, set in 2002 at the Pennsylvannia Qualifying Stone Skipping Tournament, was held by Kurt "Mountain Man" Steiner, 42, of Emporium.