British skateboarder breaks world record down under

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Dave Cornthwaite and his battered skateboard Elsa celebrate setting a new world record in Brisbane

A British man rolled his way into the record books in the early hours of the morning by skateboarding across Australia. Dave Cornthwaite, 27, of Swansea, started his attempt in August.

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Watch Dave cross the finishing line: REAL PLAYER

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More than 200 well wishers joined television crews and the British High Commissioner to welcome the Briton as he crossed the finishing line in Brisbane.

When he glided over the finish with Elsa, his battered skateboard, in the city's South Bank area he had completed a record 5,820 kilometres, or 3,638 miles.

Dave - who has become an unlikely celebrity Down Under - started out on August 30 in Perth, Western Australia, on a journey that friends back home thought was simply 'mad'.

Since then he has passed through Adelaide, along the Great Ocean Road, through Melbourne and Sydney in New South Wales, to Brisbane.

He arrived in Brisbane yesterday and stopped just three kilometres, or two miles, from the finishing line before finishing the final stretch today flanked by local skaters at 12.30pm local time.

By then Dave had already smashed the record for a skateboard journey set by an American in 2003 who skated 4,830km.

His unlikely antipodean odyssey started in 2005 when the graphic designer bought a skateboard to commute to work.

Within a fortnight he discovered a dormant streak of adventure in himself and decided to cross Australia.

He then proceeded to limber up by skating the length of Britain before flying Down Under last summer.

His Australian journey has seen him notch up an average 60km a day, or 38 miles, and raise thousands of pounds for three children's charities.

Boardfree, the website set up to chronicle his progress, told of his final full day of travel.

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