Forget smashing records at the Olympics - a new UK sheep shearing record has been set in Kent.

Joel Barton defleeced 537 Romney ewe lambs in nine hours, breaking the previous record by 16.

“It was amazingly hard work,” he said afterwards. “My arms and hands cramped up in the first two hours so I had some physio which got me going again.

“After that it was a bit of a blur and a real battle. I only got through it because I had a really good team supporting me.”

Joel, 26, of Lower Road, Woodchurch, was raising money for the British Heart Foundation.

The event took place at Walter House Farm in Woodchurch, and was monitored by officials from the British Isles Shearing Competitions Association.

Joel started shearing at 5am, finishing 12 hours later. The day was broken down into five runs, or shearing sessions, with Joel tackling between 100 and 119 lambs each time.

His support team travelled from as far away as Scotland, Wales and even New Zealand.

They ensured a constant supply of lambs, cared for the equipment and did time keeping.

Shearing instructor Chris Brears made a special trip from New Zealand – where Joel works part of the year – to act as coach and prepare the shearing gear.

Joel has been a professional shearer for seven years, splitting his time between England, Scotland, Australia and New Zealand, shearing around 50,000 sheep a year.

In a normal working day he will do around 300 in eight or nine hours. His personal best is 470 in one day.

Among those watching him set a new record was his first shearing instructor at Plumpton College, Phil Hart.