Yoga asanas are relaxing and improve your health. But doing 41 yoga poses and stretching exercises in 5 minutes 19 seconds and 31 poses in 4 minutes 5 seconds balancing on a BMX Bike without touching the ground is a challenge. 58-year-old Khiv Raj Gurjar traveled from Jodhpur in India all the way to Germany to accomplish these feats. Khiv Raj Gurjar, who studied yoga since the age of 13 and meditates regularly, balanced also for 11 minutes 18 seconds on a BMX Bike without contact with the ground. His three world records were part of the 17th edition of the Impossibility Challenger organised by the Sri Chinmoy Centres.

One can juggle well with balls. But did you ever think that axes are good for juggling? 51-year-old Milan Roskopf from Slovakia’s capital Bratislava juggled with three axes 53 times and therewith improved his old world record by 18 axe throws.

Jennifer Davis (36) from Canada entertained her listeners as she set a new Guinness World Record with her whistling marathon. For 24 hours the Canadian whistled songs composed by Sri Chinmoy, the founder of the Impossibility Challenger. Only 5 minutes of rest were allowed after each full hour and the rest time was subtracted, so that she had to whistle a real total of 24 hours.

Christian Schaefer from the town of Netphen (near Siegen) in Germany tore in half 36 regular size envelopes in 30 seconds (old record: 26), blew a post stamp with his mouth over a 100 metre long course in 3 minutes and 4 seconds – 4 minutes and 25 seconds faster than his predecessor – and memorized 207 binary numbers (old record 132) in one minute. That means an amazing three entries in the Guinness Book of World Records for the 18-year-old North German Memory Champion of 2010.

Ranjit Pal (48) from Phagwara in India set a world record in his age category with the most rope skips in one minute. He did more than 4 rope skips in one second – a total of unbelievable 276.

Rainer Schroeder from Altenburg near Leipzig in Germany has a tough neck. The East-German set a world record by bending a 44 cm long and 1 cm thick bar of construction steel from straight to 39 degrees with bare hands around his neck. His teeth and neck muscles are also full of strength. He bend a horse shoe with his teeth through 180 degree into the shape of a question mark in 2 minutes 30 seconds. The 49-year-old broke also a 3 mm steel chain by stretching his body in 5 seconds. The steel chain was wound around his waist and on the other end fixed at a steel plate on which he stood. – a third world record for Schroeder.

The athlete, musician and peace visionary Sri Chinmoy initiated the Impossibility Challenger to inspire people to experience the joy of self-transcendence. Sri Chinmoy himself set many weightlifting world records. See Gallery 2010 for photographs about the event.

With a population of 2,116,581 Vancouver, surrounded by water and mountains easily beats the last Winter Olympics host city Turin Italy by over 1 million people. The Vancouver games of the XXI Winter Olympiad run from February 12-28, 2110.

This city which rests on the Pacific west coast of Canada in the beautiful Province of British Columbia was originally settled by coastal Indians around 500 B.C. Residents are known as Vancouverites and it is the birthplace of one of largest environmental organisations named Greenpeace.

At fifty-five years hold Ashrita is showing no signs of slowing down with age, this wonder kid currently holds 114 Guinness World Records. On his most recent trip away at the Hotel Caribe in Cartagena Columbia Ashrita set a new Guinness record for blowing a postage stamp 100 meters in the fastest time of 7 minutes 29 seconds. As with many of his records Ashrita likes to include a little twist to make the record setting even more unique and memorable so he did this whilst carrying “Pepe” a Colombian tree sloth. By all accounts “Pepe” had a good ride and wasn’t fazed by the occasion at all.

“So, I am always looking for new ideas for world records. Sometimes, I’ll go through the Guinness Book and some record will jump out at me. Often, I’ll return to an earlier record which someone else had subsequently broken. And sometimes, an incident in everyday life will give me an idea for a new record that has never been attempted before. Enter the lunge!”

To read about the rest of his fascinating attempt visit www.ashrita.com/blog/its-lungetime

Ashrita Furman from Queens New York currently holds 92 Guinness World Records.

In this American network television exclusive, Ashrita talks about his life, his relationship with Sri Chinmoy and how he contracted the ‘Guinness bug’ from an early age. A self proclaimed High School nerd, Ashrita dramatically transformed his life into the pursuit of one thing, happiness. And it is in this pursuit that he has traveled the globe and achieved some of the most remarkable Guinness World Records ever seen.

More about Ashrita

• Ashrita Furman’s website

It is a fascinating interview about the event, its founder Sri Chinmoy and the relationship between spirituality and physical fitness.  This is a national radio show and covers the entire country. Thank you to Bryan and his producer Robyn Walker for this great opportunity.

15th November 2009

Multiple Guinness Records smashed in one day at Impossibility Challenger

A frenzy of record-breaking took place at the 16th Impossibility Challenger, with 11 Guinness and 7 world records broken.

The event was held on 14 November 2009 in Auckland’s Trusts Stadium in New Zealand, the first time it has ever occurred outside of Europe.

Swiss weightlifter Albert Walter set two Guinness world records for ripping a 1440 page phone book in 6:83 seconds and breaking a 30cm long, 9.5mm wide carpenter’s nail in 3.24 minutes, both with his bare hands.

Alastair Galpin, one of the most prolific Guinness record breakers in the world, set nine new Guinness records in the same day, including the most high-fives in a minute and the furthest distance spitting a ping pong ball.

Four employees of New Zealand tyre company Frank Allen Tyres smashed the world record for the fastest 4 wheel tyre change on a car, reducing it from 2 min 30 sec to 1 min 25 sec.

20 people constructed a 270.3 metre balloon chain in one hour, beating the previous world record of 216 metres.

Plenty of new world records were set including the fastest mile pushing someone in a supermarket trolley (8 min 14 sec), the furthest distance travelled by a balloon powered car, the tallest hat made from balloons (3 metres 20 centimetres) and the world’s largest dot to dot drawing (10 metres square)

The Impossibility Challenger was founded in 1982 by the accomplished weightlifter and runner Sri Chinmoy (1931-2007) to promote self-transcendence, the ideal of challenging limits and going beyond previous accomplishments.

Media Contact: Budhsamudra Knox
Phone: 64 9 629 1556
Fax: 64 9 309 3439
Mobile: 64 021 853 125
Email: info@impossibilitychallenger.com
Website: www.impossibilitychallenger.com