World record shearing update: Sacha Bond remains on track for 9-hour women’s bid

Sacha Bond hold the current solo women's eight-hour strong wool lamb world record of 601.

King Country shearer Sacha Bond has hit the lunch break well in charge of a bid to become the first woman to shear more than 700 sheep nine hours.

With five-and-a-half-hours gone of the world women’s solo nine-hour strong wool lamb shearing record attempt at Centre Hill near Mossburn in Northern Southland, Bond had posted a tally of 441, maintaining a constant average of just under 45 seconds a lamb in quest of the record currently standing at 661, shorn by Southland gun Megan Whitehead two years ago.

Starting at 5am, Bond shore 163 in the first two hours to breakfast, but had one rejected by the World Sheep Shearing Records Society.

She had no more blemishes and shore 142 and 137 in two runs of 1hr 45mins before taking the lunch break at midday.

Her pace puts her on track for about 730 by the time the shear ends at 5pm, and her average per hour is about five up on her now-beaten eight hour record of 601 shorn in February.

Shearing resumes at 1pm with two more ruins of 1hr 45min runs seeing out the rest of the day, which follows the standard nine-hour woolshed working day - when the shearing gangs stayed out on remote stations until the contract was completed.

Conditions were cool in the pre-breakfast run but high cloud and temperatures up to 27 deg are forecast for the remainder of the day.

The lambs are expected to clip over 1kg of wool a head, the minimum required average of 0.9kg having been met in a Monday afternoon wool weigh in which 20.06kg was shorn from a sample of 20 lambs.

In the back of Bond’s mind will have been that record holder and Southland gun Megan Whitehead, who shore her 661 two years ago, has for the last four days also held claim to the biggest tally shorn by any women in any record bid – for a tally shorn in just eight hours.

On Friday Whitehead claimed the women’s solo eight-hour lamb record with a tally of 686 lambs, 85 on top of the 601 Bond had shorn in claiming the eight-hour record 10 months ago.