She’s done it. After nine hours of lighting fast shearing, 24-year-old Megan Whitehead has made history, shearing 661 lambs today.

A crowd of supporters erupted into cheers as Whitehead smashed the world solo women’s 9-hours strongwool lamb shearing record at the Grant Brothers woolshed in Gore.

The previous record was 648, set by Waikato shearer Emily Welch in 2007.

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Starting the day at 5am, Southland shearer Whitehead got off to a comfortable start, shearing 75 in first hour, three ahead of the hourly target of 72.

Going into the last quarter-hour before the breakfast break, she was on target for just over 150 in the first run, compared with the 144 first-run totals shorn by Welch during her 2007 record.

At the afternoon tea break at 2.45 pm, she had shorn 546 lambs, needing just 99 in the last hour and 45 minutes to break the record.

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The previous record holder Welch, who flew-south today to watch a new piece of history unfold, had shorn 519 at the equivalent stage of her record.

Whitehead, just 60kg and handling lambs of 34-36kg each at a rate of under 50 seconds each, shore 153 in the first two hours to breakfast. In the successive 1hr 45min runs she shore 132, 126, 125 and 125.

Megan Whitehead grabs another lamb to shear. Photo: Facebook

A large crew was helping around the shed and Grant Brothers farm, including the shearer’s father Quentin Whitehead. He monitored the clock near his daughter’s side all day while Southland shearing legend and multiple New Zealand representative Nathan Stratford looked after her gear.

At home near Te Kuiti and watching via live-streaming, Sir David Fagan, who 36 years ago was the first to do over 700 in a men’s attempt on a 9hr lambs record under the modern rules, was astounded. “She’s going to break it. And if anyone’s going to break it again, it’ll be her,” he said.

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Five judges from the World Sheep Shearing Records Society were overseeing the record, with one watching from Australia via AVL.

Yesterday they gave the green light for the attempt to go ahead when a sample shear of 20 lambs produced 21kg of wool, comfortably over the required minimum of 0.9kg per lamb.