VIJAYAWADA: Hyderabad’s Husna Sameera and Vizag’s Allada Pavan are all set to make an attempt to enter the Guinness Book of Records by playing marathon carrom for close to 35 hours at DRRMC indoor stadium here on Sunday.
The existing record of marathon carrom is held by four players from United States of America – Narayan Paranjape, Atul Kharecha, Prakash Kagal and Pramod Shah. They played for 32 hours, 45 minutes in 2005. “The aim of our players to play for 34 hours, 45 minutes and 56 seconds,” said Neeraj Kumar Sampathy, president of All India Carrom Federation.
He said both the players will take seven breaks in their tryst with glory and will play eight boards for one hour. “Both will play close to 375 boards with all the timings perfectly entered into the score sheets by the observers. Doctors will be monitoring the health of the players and for every four hours there will be a break”.
Mr. Sampathy said that marathon carrom will start at 8 a.m. on December 25 and will end at 6.45 p.m. on December 26. “Both the players will under to meditation for 30 minutes before the commencement of the event”.
“The primary aim of this pursuit is to make carrom popular among people. Parents should encourage children take up this indoor game in big away as it helps achieve concentration and focus,” said Mr. Purushotham of Andhra Pradesh Olympic Association.
Sixteen-year-old Husna has already made a mark in carrom by entering the Limca Book of Records twice in 2014 and 2015 by playing non-stop carrom.
Mr. Pavan, who honed his skills at Vizag, is the first person from Andhra Pradesh to secure a job in the Customs and Central Excise Department under sports quota.
“We are grateful to all the sponsors - LIC, TREO, Sri Gayatri Institutions, HYBIZ TV and USCA for supporting this effort,” said Husna’ sp parents Dr. Sajda and Abdul Khader. City Mayor Koneru Sridhar will be chief guest of the opening ceremony.
