More than 4,200 people dressed as Santa broke the world record

A record breaking 4,260 Santas took part in the 4.5-mile race in Newtown, Powys, last December.

The organisers had been waiting for confirmation.

The former world record was held by Bralanda in Sweden, which gathered 2,685 Santas in 2002.

"We are absolutely thrilled," said Dougie Bancroft of event organisers Newtown and District Dial-a-Ride.

"The Santa Run has gone from strength to strength over the past four years and I really can't stress that it's all down to those who have supported the event over the past four years.

"This is a great achievement that Newtown and everyone who took part in the event should be proud of and we are pleased to be able to put Newtown and Wales on the map."

Trouble flared eight hours after the 2004 run. Five men were recently fined for public order offences.

None of the men took part in the race but police said some troublemakers were dressed in Santa outfits.

"Over the past few months we have had some bad publicity, which consequently had nothing to with our charity event and are glad that we can close Santa Run 2004 on a positive note and look forward to Santa Run 2005," added Mr Bancroft.

The event narrowly missed out on the world record in 2003.

Celebrate

The festive world record will be officially recorded in the 2006 Guinness World Records book, which will be on sale later this year.

Newtown mayor Cllr Les Skilton said: "I'm proud to say that I took part in last year's run and I'm already signed up and in training to join in with the thousands of Santa's this year to maintain our world record title."