PARIS: A golf-playing astronaut initiated what had to be the longest shot in the solar system, while a Canadian restaurant insisted that even though its wine store was very, very high in the sky, it nevertheless merited the name of "cellar".

The year just ending brought the usual crop of people seeking to do something, however strange, better, faster, longer or more completely than anyone else.

A selection of this year's more "unusual" records:

- A Russian cosmonaut on the International Space Station took a golf club and ball out on an excursion at the request of a sponsoring equipment manufacturer. Despite reservations from some scientists about the creation of yet more space debris, Mikhail Tyurin teed off into the emptiness for what was certain to be the longest golf shot ever made by a human being.

The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration said the ball was likely to re-enter the earth's atmosphere and burn up in two or three days. There was no mention of any holes, black or otherwise, in the vicinity of the spacecraft.

- The owners of a restaurant perched 351 metres (1,150 feet) above the ground on Toronto's CN tower said their wine cellar just had to be the highest in the world, a view that was shared by the Guinness Book of Records.

- A group of Spanish explorers claimed the record for the fastest ever crossing of the Antarctic, sledging the 4,500 kilometres (2,800 miles) in 62 days thanks to wind traction provided by giant kites. Scientists were pleased that they even managed to pick up some useful snow samples along the way.

- In similar vein, a 31-year-old Norwegian became the first woman to conquer the world's seven top mountain peaks and also to visit both poles.

"Her life will not become boring - she still has all kinds of projects up her sleeve," said a companion, after Cecilie Skog completed her seven years of exertion by skiing to the North Pole.

- To be filed under socially useful records: 10,800 schoolchildren in the Philippines simultaneously brushed their teeth, beating a three-year-old record held by 10,240 Chinese pupils. The stunt was organised to promote oral hygiene - and also to help sell a brand of toothpaste.

- Frank and Anita Milford took on the mantle of Britain's longest living married couple after the previous year's record holders were sadly separated due to the death of the husband. The Milfords - he was 98 and she 97 - had been married for 78 years, and are hoping to beat the record of 80 years set in 2005 by Percy and Florence Arrowsmith.

- An Irish-Georgian singer set the world record for the deepest concert held underwater, by performing with her five-person band 303 metres (994 feet) under the surface of the North Sea, inside one of the legs of a Norwegian oil platform.

"This was definitely the most surreal gig I've ever done," said Katie Melua after the 35-minute exploit, which she carried out with her five-member backing group.

- Twenty-one Malaysian students claimed the Guinness record for the largest number of people ever to cram into a Mini car. They admitted that most of them were very slim, but they all came up to the size requirements laid down by the Book of Records.

- One of the many white storks which commute each year between central Europe and North Africa became the living creature to have been monitored for the longest period of time via satellite tracking, scientists in Switzerland said.

The bird had had an Argos tracking beacon fixed to its back for 2,628 days, or over seven years, beating the previous record held by an American bald eagle.

The scientists said they had decided at the outset to name the bird Max, only to realise later that it was a female.

- Owners of a specialist sports car in Britain claimed the world record for the largest number of vehicles of the same type ever driven together in a procession. They put on the stunt, involving 479 cars driving through central London, for a serious reason: to save the TVR factory that makes the vehicles in northwest England from closure.