For Shaik Husna Sameera, the agonising two-month wait has finally ended with the Guinness World Records (GWR) issuing the certificate recognising her feat of playing carrom for 34 hours and 45 minutes at DRRMC Indoor Stadium in Vijayawada in December last.

She broke the previous record of 32 hours and 45 seconds set by Narayan Paranjpe, Atul Kharecha, Prakash Kagal and Pramod Sen in the US in 2005.

Another record holder

With the GWR insisting that the world record be certified, she had to play with only one opponent, 22-year-old Allada Pavan, who is now employed in Bengaluru.

Interestingly, both are certified as world record holders for their feat.

“It’s a great moment. I have been waiting for this for long. Only I know what I had to go through in the last two months because of the suspense. But I must thank the AICF President Neeraj Kumar Sampathy for his support in helping me realise my dream,” said the Intermediate second year student of Sri Gayathri College at Chaitanyapuri in the city here.

“Yes, there were some doubts about the date mentioned in the proof that was submitted and there were quite a few queries too. But once they were satisfied, they declared that I did set a world record with a break of five minutes after every hour. This is a great moment for me,” said the 16-year-old Hyderabadi, who took to the sport as her mother was also a player and a qualified umpire too.

National titles

What next? “The focus is on winning the national titles. I am sure that given the kind of support from the AICF and Hyderabad Carrom Association with founder-president Haranath and S. Madan Raj going all out to help me, I hope to win the World Cup one day,” she said.

For his part, Dr. Neeraj said it was a great honour for the young champion as it’s not every day that such a record is attempted in any sport.

“And, I feel it is a huge fillip to the sport itself,” he added.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Telangana / by V.V. Subrahmanyam / Hyderabad – February 25t, 2017