Eight-hundred and sixty-seven strong wool lambs sheared in nine hours. It is a statistic that earned Co Donegal man Ivan Scott a world record, a feat of immense stamina, skill and precision from the Kilmacrennan native.

The energy exerted and food required to replace the lost energy over the course of the day was the equivalent of running three marathons back-to-back.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, Scott, a nine-time Irish champion, set off on what would be a long day. He sheared his first sheep at 5am and his 867th over nine hours later in Cornwall. By this time Scott had broken the world record previously held by Don King by one lamb and 10 seconds.

“Yeah, I’m delighted. It was tough alright but I’m delighted to have it over and that it was successful,” Scott told the Irish Farmers Journal.

It was Tuesday morning after the event when he spoke to the Irish Farmers Journal and instead of living it up celebrating his win, Scott was drafting the lambs he had sheared for the record. Earlier on Tuesday morning, Scott was not contactable as he was out running. A supreme athlete.

Military precision

It was a feat and a task that required military-style precision. Scott had a 15-person team at his side including fiancée Hazel Morohan.

Timing was critical. He needed to shear a lamb every 37 seconds. If he ventured beyond 40 seconds it threw the entire process off line. This translated to needing to shear 97 sheep every hour to break the record.

Between 5am and 7am, Scott sheared 193, between 7am and 8.45am he sheared 170, between 10.15am and noon 169 were shorn, from 1pm to 2.45pm he put another 169 through his hands and between 3.15pm and 5pm Scott rattled off a final 166 lambs.

“I had a timekeeper there keeping me right with what I had to do ... You knew in your head what you had to do. I was taking it in 15-minute blocks. You needed to be on top of it and then recover at the breaks,” Scott explained.

His breaks were important. After each of the first runs he had a break where he refreshed and refuelled before tackling another batch of lambs.

“I’d shower, get a change of clothes and eat ... it would be usually energy food. Lots of sweet potato, fish, nuts, that sort of thing – the sweet potatoes were important. You’d find it hard to get enough food into you,” he said.

How does one go about training for such a record attempt? Scott, as you might expect, shears all year through. He spends about half his year in Ireland and the rest shearing across the world. He spent two months in Switzerland and 10 weeks in New Zealand last year. Other than that, he explained that running and gym work plays a role.

With Rio 2016 to get under way this week, does Scott think it is time shearing made its way to the Olympics? “Oh definitely, it should be. There was plenty of talk about it but I’m not sure it’ll ever happen.”

Multiple Irish champion and now a world record breaker – make no bones about it, Scott is a national treasure.