Canadians mark world records day

TORONTO—The Radio City Rockettes kicked up their heels yesterday, along with hundreds of other dancers and wannabe dancers, and hit a new mark on Guinness World Records Day. A final tally showed that 1,681 people linked arms and danced for five minutes to beat the record for the world’s longest single line of dancers, organizers said. The previous record—set in Stein, Germany in July, 2004—was 1,150. Dorothy McKay, 72, and husband Jack McKay, 71, are both tap dancers, and arrived early in the morning for the event on a downtown street in front of the Hummingbird Centre, where the Rockettes will be performing this holiday season. “Fabulous, wonderful, uplifting, invigorating, all of the above,” Dorothy said of the experience. Afterwards, the Rockettes—wearing green costumes and Santa hats lined with white fur—posed for photographs with some of the participants. Adjudicator Carey Low, a representative of Guinness World Records, confirmed the dance line set a new world record. “The U.K. will decide ultimately what goes in the book and what doesn’t,” he said. “But I would expect it to be in the book next year.” Record-challenging events were on the schedule all week. In Edmonton, 17-year-old Peter Charney hoped to establish a new category for the record books by doing the most indoor bungee jumps in a 24-hour period. He completed 106 jumps at West Edmonton Mall yesterday, and confessed to being “extremely sore” and tired after finishing. Still, before heading off to get some rest, he said the experience was “incredible.” “I’ve always wanted a world record,” he added. In Guelph, Ont., what promised to be the longest concert by multiple artists began Friday at midnight and was to continue until 8 a.m. Sunday. “We’re allowed a five-minute break between performers and a one-minute break between songs,” said Thomas Aldridge, owner of Manhattans music club, where the event was taking place. Altogether, he estimated 200 performers would be taking part over 201 hours, aiming to break the current record of 181 hours. On Tuesday night at rodeo grounds just outside Calgary, Trever McGhee walked about 90 metres on a bed of hot coals as a crowd of about 70 people watched. “It was exhilarating,” he said, despite getting blisters on each foot about the size of a quarter. The previous record was more than 76 metres, he said. McGhee’s attempt to get into the record books still must be verified by Guinness, but he will be submitting witness statements and video footage from Discovery TV to support his claim. McGhee, 38, is a motivational development trainer and says he has walked on coals more than 30 times before—just not such a great distance. And in Victoria on Saturday evening, Eric Pittman held an underwater news conference at a swimming pool—with 61 people in scuba gear—to promote his book “E-Mails from a Nut.” “It was a lot of fun,” he said, noting the current record for an underwater news conference is 21 people. Guinness representative Low said that generally “Canadians are very active in trying to set and establish records.” “There are probably over 100 Canadian records in the book this year, which is somewhere in the neighbourhood of five-10 percent, which is high,” Low noted.