On Sunday, November 7, eight participants from seven countries set 13 world records in various non-Olympic events at the Impossibility Challenger World Record Games in Starnberg near Munich which was hosted by the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team Germany. Eight other participants improved their personal bests. Among them was the Czechoslovakian band Japaka’s Orchestra, who gave a concert of 27 hours 15 minutes, and Petr David (31) of Sedlice, who held 11 full glasses of beer with one hand and thus broke the Czech record.
Being the first woman to run a backwards marathon on a 400 m track, Paula Mairer (45) from the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team Salzburg set the world record to 6:05:42. On track, she was only allowed to turn her head into the running direction. Paula Mairer also holds the world records in the 700 mile, 1000 km and 1300 mile (“forward“) races, which have only been attempted by very few. “Meditation is the key to my success“, Paula adds.On the same track, Stefan Ehrenfellner of Vienna did his world record in a rather unusual event. The 26-year-old sports student covered 10 km in 56 min 56 sec – with a bulky 13 kg contrabass on his back.
Swiss balancing artist Leo Bircher (54) of Stansstad baffled the audience by balancing a chair for 35 min 27 sec on his forehead. Which added up to just another world record. People from the audience and other record aspirants who tried this feat afterwards only managed to balance the chair for a few seconds.
Ever tried juggling shotputs? This is part of the daily exercise program of Milan Roskopf (45) from Bratislava. At the Impossibility Challenger, he whirled three of those 8.62 kg metal balls through the air in 40.44 sec and improved his previous world record by nearly a second. Ball magician Dr. Jan Skorkovsky of Prague set a juggling world record juggling soccer balls, corncobs, quail eggs, and what not in 55 single events in a total time of 5 hrs 30 min.
39-year-old Ramón Campayo, a Spanish TV star from Chinchilla, claimed no less than five world records. With his photographic memory he memorized an amazing 16 decimal numbers in 0.5 sec, 18 decimal number in 1 sec, 40 binary numbers (0-1-1-0...) in 1 sec., 43 binary numbers in 2 sec, and 28 binary numbers in 0.5 sec.
Czech caricaturist Lubomir Vanek of Brno was this time’s crowd pleaser. He honored 50 spectators with portraits in a record time of 25 minutes and 0.85 sec. You wouldn’t believe it, but he did two portraits at a time, using both his left and his right hand.
The 11th Impossibility Challenger World Record Games were organized by the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team, also host of the world’s longest official foot race on a certified lap, the 3100 mile race.
