Top Tumblers Smash World Record

Last night elite gymnasts from Rotorua’s Mid Island GymSports Club, plus four athletes from the NZ Trampoline Team, annihilated the world record for travelling the greatest distance in 60 minutes forward rolling.

The Kiwi team rolled an astonishing 10183.9 metres (1335 metres further than the height of Mount Everest!) straight into the Book of Guinness World Records (subject to verification later this year).

The previous world record, held by Germany since 2002, was 9092.4 metres rolled in an hour.

Sarah Ashmole, GymSports New Zealand Business Development Manager, says the world record was an incredible team effort.

“The team went hard for an hour and absolutely destroyed the world record. We had paramedics on stand by and there were plenty of scrapes, bumps and bruises and one athlete even threw up at the end of challenge!"

“The latest Book of Guinness World Records came out today so we just missed out in this edition - but I assume we’ll be the first record breakers for next edition.”

The tumbling world record attempt was part of the promotions for the Indo Pacific Trampoline and Tumbling Championships which are taking place at the Rotorua Energy Event Centre from 13-19 October.

This is the first time New Zealand has been selected to hold the Champs, and Rotorua will host more than 300 trampoline and tumbling athletes from seven countries.

The sport of trampolining in New Zealand comes under the umbrella of GymSports NZ and the Championships are being sponsored by Rotorua District Council, the Bay Trust, Rotorua Energy Trust and Sport & Recreation New Zealand (SPARC).