Festival concludes with another two Guinness World Records

Lahore: On the final day of the Punjab Youth Festival which was conducted by Sports Board Punjab, the country was graced with another two Guinness World Records on Thursday.

On the final day of the Punjab Youth Festival, two records – breaking of maximum pine boards in 30 seconds with head and largest painting by number – were set raising the total number of records created in the Punjab Youth Festival to 23.

The Punjab Youth Festival 2012 was launched on August 6, last year and was spread to all the nook and corners of the province in which activity was held at several levels including neighbourhhood and village, union council, tehsil, district, divisional, provincial, national and international levels. Even in the international level the competitions were also held between Pakistan and Indian teams and the deaf and dump dosti cup between the special people of the two countries.

But the most alluring and heart-throbbing were the Guinness World Records established by the young and old, children and ladies of the Punjab. They were those events in which even some of the parliamentarians including Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif, Indian Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbeer Singh Badal and Mian Hamza Shahbaz Sharif, MNA, were the prominent figures.

Deputy Speaker and Chief Organiser of the entire sports activity Rana Mashhood Ahmed Khan and Director General Sports and Youth Affairs Usman Anwar were the persons behind the fulfilling of the dream visioned by Mian Shahbaz.

In today’s Guinness events, Mohammad Rashid of Karachi increased his number of records to four by breaking 34 pine boards in 32 seconds with his head. He broke Kevin Shelley (USA) record of 32 pin boards broken in 30 seconds which was set at El Show Olímpico, in Mexico City, Mexico, on 30 July 2008.

And the youngsters of Sports Board Punjab in second Guinness Record of largest painting by numbers was broken by a new mark of 3717 square metres going beyond the previous record largest painting by numbers measured 3,130.55 m (33,696 ft² 138.2 in²) and was unveiled by the Ecole de Dessin in Lagos State, Nigeria, on 17 November 2010. Students of different colleges and universities painted Punjab Youth Festival on the sheets laid on the field of Punjab Stadium. They painted Punjab Youth Festival with different colours.

In the first phase of Guinness Records attempts in the Punjab Youth Festival, 11 GWRs were established while in the second attempt on March 12, six GWRs were created and four was established on the following day while on the final day on March 14, one successful attempt was made. In the second phase attempts during which 11 records were established, Mohammad Rashid created four world records by opening 40 bottle caps, kicking 50 and broke 68 pine boards with elbow and on the final day broke 34 pine boards with head.

Apart from these, Pakistan test bowler Rana Navedul Hasan played 45 balls in a minute while most people arm wrestling simultaneously record was also broken with 1450’s participation. There were several other attempts for Guinness World Records lined up by the Sports Board Punjab but shortage of time kept them from attempting on all of them.

However, the most glorious record was of the mas participation of singing the national anthem and the formation of the Pakistan flag.