One young contender created the world’s largest sequin mosaic using 325,000 of the sparkly discs.
Two other youths achieved 123 consecutive badminton passes in one minute. And 1,450 participants broke the record for the most people arm wrestling.
Such are the skills that Guinness World Records are made of in Pakistan, where thousands of young people are groomed to establish their unique feats for posterity.
Last week, the contestants came together for the annual Punjab Youth Festival to show their stuff — many in athletics, but others in downright quirky displays, including a boy who achieved fame by kicking 50 coconuts from atop the heads of a row of people.
It seems Pakistan has become a world record-creating machine, with the coordinated effort reaping an impressive 23 world records, event organizers boasted.
The push for inclusion of Pakistanis in the venerable Guinness World Records entries (which began in book form in 1955) stems in part from festival organizers’ desire to boost the image of a country often associated with militancy, religious strife and economic decline.
There is a patriotic element, as well: Last October, 42,813 Pakistanis gathered in a Lahore hockey stadium to sing the national anthem and create yet another world record for the most people singing their country’s anthem.
Days later, another 24,200 people held green and white boxes — the colors of the national flag of Pakistan — to set the world record for creating the largest human flag.
Although some of the records might seem amusing to others — coconut kicking champ Mohammad Rashid of Karachi last week claimed his fourth world record by breaking 34 pine boards in 32 seconds with his head — the competitions were no laughing matter to participants.
Usman Anwar, director of the Punjab Youth Festival, explained that the kids have been training for eight months.
“We started at the neighborhood and village level so that children could come out and participate,” said Anwar. “Our main objective was to inculcate interest for sports in the public.”
Young people from 55,200 neighborhood and village councils vied for a chance to compete in the games. “We were able to select the best of the best to train for the world records,” said Anwar. Because of terrorism, political upheaval and widespread unemployment, many young people have little hope for the future, says Hafeez Rehman, a professor in the anthropology department at Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad.
Sports competitions, he said, create an opportunity for youth to excel personally and also to improve Pakistan’s image.
“We have energetic youth. Pakistan has more than 55 million young people. It becomes an asset for the country, ” said Rehman.
The festival itself has become part of the record-setting mania. It was recognized for having more participants — 3.3 million, according to Anwar, most of whom registered online — a world record for sporting events.
Kicking coconuts and other Pakistani world records
Kicking coconuts and other Pakistani world records
Cambodia takes back looted historic artifacts handled by British art dealer
- The objects were returned under a 2020 agreement between the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts and the family of the late Douglas Latchford, a British art collector and dealer who allegedly had the items smuggled out of Cambodia
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: Cambodian officials on Friday received more than six dozen historic artifacts described as part of the country’s cultural heritage that had been looted during decades of war and instability.
At a ceremony attended by Deputy Prime Minister Hun Many, the 74 items were unveiled at the National Museum in Phnom Penh after their repatriation from the United Kingdom.
The objects were returned under a 2020 agreement between the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts and the family of the late Douglas Latchford, a British art collector and dealer who allegedly had the items smuggled out of Cambodia.
“This substantial restitution represents one of the most important returns of Khmer cultural heritage in recent years, following major repatriations in 2021 and 2023 from the same collection,” the Culture Ministry said in a statement. “It marks a significant step forward in Cambodia’s continued efforts to recover, preserve, and restore its ancestral legacy for future generations.”
The artifacts were described as dating from the pre-Angkorian period through the height of the Angkor Empire, including “monumental sandstone sculptures, refined bronze works, and significant ritual objects.” The Angkor Empire, which extended from the ninth to the 15th century, is best known for the Angkor Wat archaeological site, the nation’s biggest tourist attraction.
Latchford was a prominent antiquities dealer who allegedly orchestrated an operation to sell looted Cambodian sculptures on the international market.
From 1970 to the 1980s, during Cambodia’s civil wars and the communist Khmer Rouge ‘s brutal reign, organized looting networks sent artifacts to Latchford, who then sold them to Western collectors, dealers, and institutions. These pieces were often physically damaged, having been pried off temple walls or other structures by the looters.
Latchford was indicted in a New York federal court in 2019 on charges including wire fraud and conspiracy. He died in 2020, aged 88, before he could be extradited to face charges.
Cambodia, like neighboring Thailand, has benefited from a trend in recent decades involving the repatriation of art and archaeological treasures. These include ancient Asian artworks as well as pieces lost or stolen during turmoil in places such as Syria, Iraq and Nazi-occupied Europe. New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the prominent institutions that has been returning illegally smuggled art, including to Cambodia.
“The ancient artifacts created and preserved by our ancestors are now being returned to Cambodia, bringing warmth and joy, following the country’s return to peace,” said Hun Many, who is the younger brother of Prime Minister Hun Manet.
