Aussies break record at Olympics

Australia has claimed the first world record of the London Olympics, without breaking a sweat on the track or in the pool.

Rather, it involved a heap of Australians, nudity and a fair deal of booze.

One thousand mostly Australian expats gathered outside the Windmill Pub in London on Wednesday, setting a new record for the most people wearing the same team outfit.

It more than doubled the previous record of 537 volleyball gear-wearing people in Poland in 2007.

Organiser Louisa Galligani said the event was spread purely by word of mouth, and staff estimated by the end of the night they'd turned away another 2000 people.

"We didn't budget for anything bigger than 1000," she said.

They were lured by the prospect of a free yellow t-shirt and dark shorts, a sausage and a soft drink.

But with the pre-staging held inside the pub, local beer was flowing freely.

Guinness World Book of Records adjudicator Jack Brockbank conceded quietly that the biggest battle would be keeping the crowd stationary for the requisite 10 minutes.

The attempt, held late at night London time to make the morning television shows Down Under, took almost an hour to set up, with the crowd herded into a "G'day" shape.

But some took umbrage at the wait and took to streaking and mooning the television reporters as security tried desperately to put them back in their places.

Olympian Geoff Huegill, who witnessed it all on behalf of Commonwealth Bank which set up the Guinness attempt, said it was great to be involved in another world record.

Huegill narrowly fell short of making the London swimming team.

"When I found out last month that I had the opportunity to break a world record, I jumped at it," he said.