Record set for rope jumping

BANDUNG (JP): At 45 years old, Ashrita Furman showed he could rival the world's fittest athletes in a test of endurance after he skipped for over 130,000 beats here over the weekend.

Furman, a Guinness Book of Records regular since 1979 who has 58 records to his name, demonstrated his rope jumping skills over a 24-hour period, finishing at 9 a.m. on Saturday.

During the energy-sapping exercise, Furman took an hourly five-minute break to eat or drink. A doctor, a time keeper and a beat counter witnessed the display of stamina.

Vasanti Nienz from the record breaker's entourage said that Furman, who is a native of Brooklyn in New York, trained for between two and three hours a day over a six-week period before attempting to set the world record. "That's dedication," he said.

"Concentration played a pivotal role...This achievement (his powers of concentration) is a product of his daily meditation exercises," Nienz added.

Nienz said Guinness executives promised Furman a 59th appearance in their book if he surpassed 100,000 jumps.

Furman and his entourage follow the Indian spiritual philosopher Sri Chinmoy, who founded a meditation center in Queens, New York, in 1979. The Indian guru has been behind the bulk of the world records set by Furman, who is of Jewish descent and was born Keith Furman.

Among the records he holds or has held are 27,000 jumping jacks, 27 hours of yodeling, 53.2 miles of backward unicycling and 11.5 miles of pogosticking.

Furman will join a 10-kilometer run for peace with orphans here on Wednesday. (Sonny Kasiran)