A man hoping to be named the UK’s ‘top coach’ has smashed a world record for walking on glass – in a Horsforth restaurant.

Diners at the Bageecha restaurant stared in amazement on Sunday as Nigel Jardine began walking barefoot around a raised, octagonal circuit of broken glass.

The motivational expert, who is in the final four of a competition to be named Britain’s Next Top Coach, went on to shatter a world record by walking 1,060 metres in one hour – the previous glasswalk best had been 960 metres.

And, keen to maximise the event’s publicity in support of charity Action for Children, he didn’t stop there. Determined to create a new, never before attempted world record for walking on glass for 36 hours, the coach kept going until he was forced to retire at 9.30pm on Monday.

He had covered a total of 30 kilometres, after walking contin-uously for some 27-and-a-half hours.

Mr Jardine, 56, was allowed five-minute breaks every hour during the challenge to grab a drink, visit the toilet or have a lie down.

An aching Mr Jardine, said: “It feels good to have two world records.

“My calf muscles are incredibly sore, I usually only do the glass-walking for a few minutes but this was 27-and-a-half hours.

“But I’m used to walking on broken glass, I suppose the cust-omers at the restaurant weren’t used to watching someone do it as they tucked into their meals!

“It was fine, and I had a great support group to help especially when I was going through the night. We had to have everything measured and checked, too, for the records, and I was filmed.”

Anyone who would like to vote for him in the Next Top Coach competition can do so by visiting nigeljardine.com.

Manager of the Hall Park-based Bageecha restaurant, Hena Khatun, said: “Nigel is a regular customer here and we knew that he had been doing this and things like it, walking on glass and fire, for quite a while in his job.

“We got involved because he asked if we could give him the space to try the record attempt and we were happy to agree because we trust him, he’s good at what he does. “And it’s a great cause, a really good charity, and to have a successful world record attempt made in your restaurant is quite something!

“We’ve got one huge room with capacity for about 90 seats, so we gave him one side of it and we’ve still had our usual customers come in and use the other side.

“It didn’t really put them off, they were surprised of course but were quite happy with it.

“Nigel had wanted to go on until Tuesday but unfortunately had to stop on Monday night because it was becoming quite dangerous for him, I think his feet were hurting.

“But he has achieved what he set out to and broken a world record, and we are really happy for him and proud to have been involved.”

Mr Jardine, who divides his time between Horsforth and Alicante in Spain, decided to undertake the daring challenge for two reasons.

The first was that, as someone who suffered mental and physical abuse as a child, he felt a personal connection with Action for Children’s work.

The second was symbolic – as he believes walking on glass serves as a powerful metaphor for how he felt as a young child when he would always tread carefully to avoid being hurt.