Casual Contestant Shatters Texting Speed Record

Melissa Thompson, 27, of Salford, England, was out shopping over the weekend when the folks at a Samsung booth persuaded her to have a go at texting the official 26-word sentence used in determining the Guinness World Record speed title. Despite proclaiming her fingers out of shape, Thompson took a Swype-equipped Samsung Galaxy S in hand, and when she was done, the existing record of 35.54 seconds–set earlier this year by Franklin Page of Seattle–lay in tatters. Thompson took just 25.94 seconds to type “The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human.”