 WHILE Welsh soccer bosses are calling for Russia to be kicked out of Euro 2004, another home-grown sportsman is also calling "foul" over world record claims. In January James Bingham, 28, from Rhosneigr, Anglesey, claimed the altitude record for the bizarre sport of extreme ironing. Now a Norfolk farmer is claiming the crown. But he has been accused of using an easy way out. Earlier this year James and his brother Oliver, known as the Hot Plate Brothers, scaled South America's highest peak - Aconcagua in Argentina. After reaching the 4,230 metres base camp Oliver was taken ill with altitude sickness leaving James, accompanied by a Dutch climber and their guide, to continue to the 6,800-metre mark. Feeling weak, he ironed a shirt before abandoning his heavy ironing-board and climbing the further 162 metres to the summit where he hoisted the Welsh flag. With the new record in the bag the brothers, who were raising funds for the British Red Cross, returned home happy. Now 62-year-old farmer John Carrick claims to have reached the summit with his board and iron less than a month after James. But purists of the bizarre sport, which was invented in 1997, feel that by taking a lightweight carbon-fibre board which folded into his rucksack John had an unfair advantage. Yesterday James, a financial consultant based in London, said he was not bitter about the record claim. But he said there was a substantial difference between hauling a full-size board and a lightweight version up a mountain. He also said that there had been no independent verification that the picture of John was actually taken at the summit. "But if he did do it, good luck to him because it's a very difficult mountain to climb and he, too, was doing it for charity," he said. John, whose nickname is Mash-ieniblick, said: "Yes, I took a modified ironing board up the mountain but making kit that folds up into your rucksack isn't cheating, it's using your brain." | 
