Girl has world's loudest clap

Her record breaking feat of clapping at 73 decibels has been confirmed by the Guinness Book of Records.

Martha's ability to clap very loudly was a family joke for her long-suffering Mum and Dad, Tina and Stuart, 43.

At 73 decibels Martha's clap is almost as loud as grunt by tennis player Maria Sharapova and is the equivalent of a HGV trundling by or a washing machine at full spin.

It was only when Martha's family, from Harrogate in North Yorkshire, bought The Guinness Book of Records for Christmas that they noticed there was no entry for the world's loudest clap.

"Stuart just said, 'well, there's got to be a place for our Martha there',"

said Tina, a part-time bank worker.

"He emailed the Guinness Book of Records and they wrote back saying, 'no, that's a new one - but go right ahead.' We first noticed her clap about a year ago when she would just clap for no reason. Then she told us that the other children mentioned it at school.

"For the world record we had to call the council to send environmental health officers round and there were rules about how far away she could be from the microphone. It was all very serious. In the end she got a certificate from the Guinness Book of World Records which she took into school and she got a round of applause at assembly.

"Martha often turns heads when she claps and, like me and Stuart, they sometimes whisper to her, 'please, can you clap just a little bit more quietly?'"

Jill Collier, environmental protection officer at Harrogate Borough Council, recorded the world's official loudest clap at Martha's home.

She said: "Martha is a lovely little girl who is quite shy and quiet. It is amazing that something so loud can come out of someone so small and quiet.

She clapped and clapped dozens of times until we got the record-breaking 73 decibels. She has a very hollow sort of clap which is quite unusual.

"At 73 decibels there could be environmental health problems if someone had the television on all night at that volume or something. But I'm happy to say there's no law against little girls clapping loudly from time to time!"

Janet Davies, headteacher at Martha's Oatlands Infant School, said: "We had Martha to the front of assembly for a clapping competition with the teachers.

Martha, I'm proud to say, was the clear winner."

Martha has an older brother, Seamus, nine, and a little sister, Florence, who is three. Their dad, Stuart, is a teacher at an Independent school in Yarm, near Stockton-on-Tees.

Martha joins a list of Britons who are some of the world's loudest, according to the Guinness Book of Records website. Paul Hunn of London recorded the world's loudest burp at 118 decibels in April 2000.

That is the equivalent of an aircraft taking off. The loudest scream was by classroom assistant Jill Drake in the Millennium Dome in London in October 2000. Her scream reached 129 decibels.

However the loudest fingersnap was by an American. Bob Hatch, of California, recorded a sound of 118 decibels.