The thigh's the limit! How our 5ft 2 3/4in man measured up on a date with the world's longest legs



Had I met Svetlana Pankratova 20 years ago, I'd have run a mile. Not that it would have taken her very long to catch me.

Hold on a moment. I ought to be honest with myself - there's not a hope in hell that she'd have made chase.

Just look at the maths. Svetlana is many things. She is blonde, big-eyed, confident and attractive. She is also the owner of the longest pair of human legs on the planet.

Tall story: Svetlana Pankratova with the vertically-challenged Vincent



Her legs measure 132cm, or 4ft 4in.



Meanwhile, my whole body comes in at 5ft 2 3/4in. (And don't you dare snatch that three-quarters of an inch from me.)

Despite all this, Svetlana has agreed to spend the afternoon with me, in an effort to give me a glimpse of what life is like for the big boys and girls.

We're perched by the bar in a pub in London's West End.



Sitting on her bar stool, she doesn't appear to be overly tall. It's only when she uncurls her legs and stands up that you notice how extraordinary her body is.

Put it like this: the top of her legs line up with my shoulders.



I won't spell out where my head is when we stand facing each other. But I won't be needing an umbrella today.

But it's not Svetlana's bust that has, over the past few days, enabled her to achieve a blast of worldwide fame.



She's just earned herself a place in the book of Guinness World Records because her legs are officially the longest in the world, a full two inches longer than the shortie who had previously been claiming the title.

Such great heights: The mismatched pair stretch out on a bed



Today, as she sips a pint of English bitter, her extraordinary limbs are housed in a pair of bright blue jeans that fit as tightly as a Harley Street surgeon's rubber gloves.



And quite right, too. She'd be daft to hide them, even if she could.



For her legs are not just inexplicably long, they are also slim, toned and sexy.

At this point, I should point out to my lovely wife that these descriptions of my drinking companion's body are delivered purely in the interest of scientific discovery.



And, in any case, Svetlana said: 'Though I don't mind dating shorter men, I wouldn't go to extremes, of course.'

Would 5ft 2 3/4 in count as an extreme?



'I'm afraid you would be too short for me,' replies Svetlana, whose boyfriend is a mere 6ft.

In fact, Svetlana, 36, who was born in Russia but now works as an estate agent on Spain's Costa del Sol, is not as tall as you might imagine.



Though her legs take up a whole 4ft 4in, her full body is 'only' 6ft 5in.

'All my extra height is in my legs,' she says. 'If I'm sitting behind my desk at work, no one realises how tall I am.



'Above the waist, I'm like everyone else. It's only when I stand up that people say "Wow".'

Nor is she the product of unusual parents. She's brought her mother along to our little drink in the pub, and Lidia, a sweet white-haired woman, is a mere 5ft 11in.

'She was an ordinary baby, not any larger than any of the other babies at first,' Lidia says.



'She weighed 3.2kg (7lb) when she was born.



'But by the time she reached her first birthday, I realised that she was growing very fast.'

Her look is certainly eyecatching. As we chat, two strangers peek their heads through the door of the pub.



It's gawping time at the zoo. Out come the mobile phone cameras. Snap, snap.

'People stare a lot. I suppose I'm used to it, but sometimes I still get irritated by the reaction I get,' says Svetlana.

'Some people do make nice comments, but most of them are pretty stupid.



'I'm surprised that middle-aged men think it's OK to behave like children when they see me. And I don't like it when people take pictures sneakily.'

Yet despite this, she appears to revel in the attention her body brings her.



In the cab to the pub, the driver instantly reached for his copy of the Daily Mail. 'You're the lady who was in my paper, aren't you?



'You've got incredible legs,' he said. 'Thank you,' she beamed.

It wasn't always like this.

'As a teenager, I was quite self conscious about my height.'



Her solution? She joined a basketball team.



'It would have been a waste not to have, wouldn't it? And it made me feel better being surrounded by tall people.'

These days, she flaunts what she's got. We leave the pub - eyes still swivelling - and walk along London's Tottenham Court Road.



She often wears mini skirts (they're sold as knee-length, of course).

'I'm very fond of my legs. I've got really nice legs, so why should I hide them?



'It's nice to show off the fact that I have the longest legs on the planet.'

The downsides are obvious.

She can't travel with easyJet or Ryanair. She can't buy trousers very easily.



She can't bear it when people say to her: 'Did you know you've got really long legs?'

But mostly she appears to revel in her extraordinary physique.



She hasn't ended up in the Guinness Book of World Records against her will - the entry is a direct result of an email she sent to the company when she realised that her legs were longer than the previous incumbent's.

Her trip to the UK is being funded by the publisher, and it may lead to a new career.

'Change is always nice,' she says enigmatically. 'I wouldn't mind doing something else - in the media. Or modelling.'

So, the million-dollar question: would she swop her 4ft 4in legs for mine?

She pauses for second. 'No thank you,' she says. 'I'm quite happy the way I am.'

• The new 2009 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records is out now.