ANKARA
Turkey’s Rumeysa Gelgi has entered the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s tallest teen.
The 18-year-old, who is 2.13m (6ft 9ins), was handed her certificate in a ceremony Wednesday in her home town of Karabuk.
She discovered her record-beating height while researching the subject and realized she was taller than the former holder. "I saw that the girl's 2.80 meter height was given as the tallest and at that time I was 2.10m tall," Gelgi told the Anadolu Agency. "I thought that I could get the record so I applied."
Gelgi was born in Turkey weighing more than 5kg and 59cm tall. Two months after she was born she was told she had hole in her heart, meaning she had to have a heart operation when she reached 26 kg.
By the age of six she was 1.76 m and 65 kg, reaching 2.05m by her 11th birthday.
Gelgi suffers from Weaver syndrome, a disorder characterized by skeletal abnormalities and developmental delay. The bones of affected individuals grow and develop more quickly than usual before and after birth.
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