Kyle Gurkovich, the Senior 2 Group Assistant Coach at Scartlet Aquatics in New Jersey (the program that produced Rebecca Soni and the Steenvoorden sisters) has broken a World Record, but it’s not specifically related to swimming.
According to this fantastic epic by nj.com writer Brian Amaral, Gurkovich completed 4,234 to reclaim the World Record for most pull-ups in a 24-hour period. If ratified by Guinness, that would reclaim his record after an Australian took it away from him with 4,210 a few weeks ago (broadcast on the Today Show, no less).
Gurkovich originally set the record in June with just over 4,000.
The Australian Caine Eckstein actually did his number in just 12 hours – though that doesn’t necessarily mean he could’ve gone another 12 hours of pull-ups.
Gurkovich will still hae to have his count reviewed for completeness of repetitions by Guinesss, and they have in the past taken some away from would-be record-holders. If the raw number, 4,238, doesn’t impress you, break that down into hours: Gurkovich’s feat is the equivalent of doing about 176, per hour, every hour, for 24 in a row.
Why would Gurkovich attempt such an exhausting feat? To raise money for pediatric cancer – a worthy cause. To donate or by a t-shirt to support the cause, visit www.teamgurk.com. Read Gurkovich’s live-tweet of the record-setting feat on his Twitter account here.