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[Residents / Residence] of a Japanese town have broken the world speed record for [building / built] snowmen. Citizens at the Iiyama Snow Festival in Nagano made 1,585 of the snowy [follows / fellows] in one hour to set the new [marking / mark] . Around 630 people took [party / part] in the record attempt. The previous record was 1,279 snowmen, set in Utah, USA in 2011. The event in Iiyama Town [coincided / coincident] with the opening of a new train station for Japan's [famous / famously] bullet train. Justin Patterson, the [injunction / adjudicator] from the official Guinness World Records organisation, said the event had been a wonderful [occasion / occasional] . He said: "Despite Iiyama being buried in snow, it is wonderful that the residents came out to tackle the challenge together in a [positive / positively] light."

There were [strict / stripped] rules to be met for the record to [be / been] broken. One was that each snowman had to be at [last / least] 80 cm tall. In addition the snowmen had to be made of three [separation / separate] snowballs, with eyes, a nose and arms. People used only [them / their] hands in the record-breaking endeavour. Committee member Jiro Kobayashi told Japan's Asahi Shimbun newspaper that the event was [fitting / fitted] for the opening of the bullet train station. He said: "We were [ability / able] to achieve the record thanks to the [cooperative / cooperation] of many people. We believe the feat will [boost / boast] the celebratory atmosphere of the opening of the Shinkansen's Iiyama Station." Ichika Oguchi, 8, said: "It was tough because the snow didn’t [stick / stickiness] together, but I had fun."