Guinness World Records Honors Outrageous Athletic Achievements with Wacky Sporting Champions e-Book
(New York) – Guinness World Records, the global authority on record-breaking achievements, today released a compendium of the craziest feats ever achieved in the world of alternative sports in the new Guinness World Records e-book: Wacky Sporting Champions. The new eBook is available on iPad, nook and kindle.
The eBook honors the unique sporting stars that have taken record-breaking to new and outrageous extremes across the globe. They include American Sumo wrestler Emmanuel Yarborough who at 704 lb is the ‘Heaviest Living Athlete,’ New Zealand’s Veronica Torr who recorded the ‘Fastest 100 Metre Hurdles Wearing Swim Fins’ (18.52 seconds), and Kenichi Ito from Japan who ran the ‘Fastest 100m Running on All Fours’ (18.58 seconds).
Everyone knows that Jamaica’s Usain Bolt is the fastest man on 2 legs, covering 100m in 9.58 seconds, but how would he cope on all fours? In November 2008 Japan’s Kenichi Ito recorded the ‘Fastest 100m on All Fours’ in an astonishing 18.58 seconds; just 9 seconds longer than Bolt! The 29 year-old self-proclaimed “monkey enthusiast” from Tokyo has spent years developing a style of running based on the movements of the West African Patas monkey.
Greg Louganis might be one of the best that ever walked the diving board, but would he be willing to take the plunge into just one foot of water? Darren Taylor, a.k.a. Professor Splash, has over 25 years experience in shallow diving. In November 2011 the 50 year old from Colorado broke his own record for the ‘Highest Shallow Dive.’ Darren made the plunge from a height of 36ft 8.94 in landing into just 12 in of water. On the heroic plunge Darren says: “Yes, it hurts, but the pain lasts for a minute, while the glory lasts a lifetime!”
All American weight lifters can take inspiration from 64 year-old John Evans who holds the 14 year-old record for the ‘Heaviest Car Balanced on the Head.’ Back in May 1999 John from Derbyshire carried a Mini Cooper, weighing 352lb, upon his head for over half a minute.
