Capt Ian Flannery, from Kedington, raises £4,900 with 4,267 sit ups
Capt Ian Flannery
An army captain from Kedington has raised almost £5,000 for charity by completing more than 4,000 sit ups on New Year’s Day (Tuesday, January 1).
Capt Ian Flannery managed to do 4,267 sits ups during his two and a half hour break in Camp Bastion, in Afghanistan’s notorious Helmand Province.
He had been taking $2 bets by comrades to see how many he could complete, and was raising money for the Captain James Philippson Trust, named after Capt ‘Jim’ was killed aged 29 in 2006 in Sangin, Afghanistan.
Capt Flannery, 36, who previously completed the 155 mile Marathon des Sables through the Sahara Desert for the same charity, said after the 150 minutes of sit ups: “I’ve blown it away.
“I didn’t think I was going to break 4,000 if I’m honest.
“I paced myself pretty well in a rehearsal and did 3,544, so I thought I’d be stretched to do 4,000 so to go 260 odd over that – I can’t believe it.
“I actually lost count at 500 and I didn’t really want to know how many I’d done so I couldn’t be accused of fixing the result, so I just tried to count hundred by hundred, but apart from that I didn’t have a clue where I was.”
Former Haverhill Rugby Club player Capt Flannery has so far raised around £4,300. Donations can still be made at www.captainjim.org/
He has raised more than £1 per sit up and completed an average of one sit up every two seconds (28.4 per minute).
For all the latest news see Thursday’s (January 17) Echo.
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