Fall of world records

This month, the 51-year-old strongman set his 103rd Guinness record (he has 30 current official records) by carrying a person of exactly his own weight in a firefighter’s carrying position for a mile in fifteen minutes.

Previously, he ran 50 miles in under 9 hours while juggling three balls; he balanced a milk bottle on his head continuously for 81 miles; seventy-five 20-ounce pint glasses balanced on his chin; he jumped the 1,900 steps of the CN Tower in Toronto; he somersaulted throughout the 12 1/4 mile Paul Revere race in Massachusetts; and he walked 8 km on stilts in just under 40 minutes, to name a few. On The Oprah Winfrey Show, Ashrita had to be escorted off the show by paramedics after eating the world’s hottest chili peppers.

Other records set by Ashrita over the past three decades include the fastest mile pushing an orange with her nose, the fastest mile in a vaulter, and the most milk crates balanced on someone’s chin.

Ashrita timed her last attempt to coincide with Guinness World Records Day. Guinness Records, the keeper of all wacky and wonderful records, has been around for 50 years and has set aside November 9 as a day to celebrate record-setting achievements.

To verify Ashrita’s record, Stuart Claxton, head of the Guinness research team in the United States, was present. “Guinness World Records has a healthy sense of humor, so we’re always interested in making it fun too. But we’re really looking for things that other people can break because, like we always say, ‘Records are meant to be broken. ‘, and that’s what we’re celebrating today,” he said.

Other record attempts were also held around the world to mark Guinness World Record Day. This month in New York, Chad Fell blew a 20-inch bubble of gum, setting a record for the largest without the use of his hands. Aaron Studham from Leominster, Massachusetts sported the tallest Mohawk haircut, at a hair-raising 21 inches. Other Guinness World Records attempted included the ‘Longest Non-Stop Commercial Flight’, from Hong Kong to London Heathrow, and the ‘Largest Milkshake’ attempt by a group in Brisbane, Australia.

The Sri Chinmoy marathon team, of which Ashrita is a member, hosts another annual event in Germany to mark Guinness World Record Day. Called the ‘Impossibility Challenger’, the one-day occasion draws participants from around the world hell-bent on setting world and personal records in a variety of non-Olympic disciplines. To athletes and record holders, these feats are known as ‘Guinnessport’. The term was coined in the 1970s to describe daredevil antics that earned it a place in the Guinness Book of World Records, which is also the world’s best-selling book. According to the organizers of the Impossibility Challenger and lovers of Guinnessport, the goal is to “exceed human limitations and challenge the seemingly impossible.”

This year, Shobha Tipnis from India became the world’s first woman to inflate a hot water bottle with her lungs until it burst. Gill Zafar, from neighboring Pakistan, lifted metal plates weighing 55kg with her right ear and held the weight in the air for 12.2 seconds. Shamita Achenbach-Konig set a Guinness record that pampered the ears: the professional cellist from Vienna played the cello for 24 hours.

Albert Walter, Swiss record holder in the bench press in 2004, set two new world records. He tore up a 960-page phone book in 2.8 seconds and broke an 8.5mm-thick carpenter’s nail with his bare hands. Rainer Schroder of Germany towed a three-tonne truck with his teeth to achieve the Guinness World Record of 35.8 meters in one minute. Milan Roskopf of Slovakia set a world record by juggling three 20-pound [9kg] shot puts for 25.6 seconds.

Ashrita Furman, the king of Guinnessport and often the top draw card, in a recent Impossibility Challenger set not one but three new records. In the space of a few hours, he completed a mile of hula-hoop twists, a mile of lunges [in which the knee had to touch the ground at every step]and standing on a gym ball, balancing three hours and 30 minutes and bettering her own previous record by over an hour.

Guinnessport fans have come to expect the impossible from Furman. He has broken so many records, in so many disciplines, that in 1987 Guinness editor Norris McWhirter awarded him the title ‘Mr. Versatility’ and allowed him an additional record: the most world records in unrelated categories.

Anke Riedel, director of the new Impossibility-Challenger, recalls an earlier event in 1990 when Ashrita broke the record for playing the most hopscotch games in 24 hours. At that same event, karate masters cut blocks of ice and a daredevil rode his bike backwards while playing the violin. The Impossibility-Challenger is nothing but diverse.

Over the past 25 years, Furman has broken more than 103 records in everything from yodelling to land rowing. “Ask fans who is the greatest athlete of all time,” The Christian Science Monitor once wrote, “and you’ll hear a family-friendly debate about the likes of Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan and Babe Ruth.” Ask readers of the Guinness Book of World Records, though, and you’ll likely hear a consensus on one name: Ashrita Furman.

Ashrita visited New Zealand in 2003 when she set a world record by juggling three lead balls underwater at Kelly Tarltons Underwater World for 48 straight minutes in a large fish tank. His first attempt at it was cut short after 16 minutes when he was repeatedly bitten on the nose by a small parrotfish!

Furman attributes all of his accomplishments to a lifelong practice of meditation, which he believes helps develop intense focus of mind, self-confidence, and willpower. He is also quick to credit all his records to his meditation master, 74-year-old Sri Chinmoy.

“In my teens I began to search for a deeper meaning to life and studied Eastern philosophy and yoga. Later I attended a meditation evening with the Indian teacher Sri Chinmoy, a meeting that changed the course of my life. Sri Chinmoy radically changed the way he looked at things. His philosophy of self-transcendence, of overcoming your limits and progressing spiritually, creatively and physically day by day, using the power of meditation, really touched me. However, I was a little unsure about the part physical in my case due to my lifelong commitment to nerdiness.

But I came to understand that the body is only an instrument of the spirit and, if performed with the right awareness, physical feats can be just as uplifting, or even more so, than meditating in a temple.”