From Books To Balls, The Borough Of Barganza Does It All

In a week of pace setting, Queens continues to outdo itself:

Jamaica resident Ashrita Furman, 52, takes the old saying ‘records are meant to be broken’ to the next level.

Furman, who has set more than 150 official Guinness world records and currently holds the most records by an individual with 65, added to his total on Sunday, August 12 when he broke three more.

Furman set new records, which Guinness representatives have to verify, by doing 36 deep-knee-bends on a Swiss ball in one minute, throwing and catching a water balloon with a partner 74 feet, which shattered the previous record of 60 and his personal favorite, running a mile while bounce-juggling three balls — with zero drops. Furman utilized the track at Queens College for his final record finishing in a time of 9 minutes and 9 seconds.

“Nobody has ever done that before; it’s a new category that Guinness approved,” Furman told The Queens Courier. “Of all three I am most happy about this because I really think it’s going to catch on. I feel like I have established a new sport.”

While his interest in the Guinness book started when he was growing up in Kew Gardens, Furman said he was not an athletic kid and never imagined he would ever break a record — until he met his spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy.

After participating in meditations conducted by Chinmoy, Furman experienced an epiphany in 1978 while participating in a 24-hour bicycle race in Central Park and decided he wanted pursue a quest to break records.

Less than a year later, Furman began his record-breaking by setting a Guinness world record for most consecutive jumping jacks — 27,000, which was previously set at 20,000.