UK duo's table tennis rally lasts over 8 hours, breaks record

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Press Trust of India London
Last Updated : Mar 28 2014 | 3:00 PM IST
In an astonishing feat, a father-son duo in the UK has set a new world record for the longest table tennis rally that lasted for over eight hours and comprised about 32,000 shots.
Peter, 50 and Daniel Ives, 24, from Bristol beat the old record by almost 10 minutes as the marathon rally lasted for eight hours, 40 minutes and 5 seconds.
They hit the ball to each other around 32,000 times non-stop and their rally ended when the ball hit Peter's finger and dropped to the floor, the Mirror reported.
The pair from Bristol had suffered with the constant sound of the ping pong ball being knocked over a net and the dull pain from repetitive strain.
The father and son completed the feat by drinking energy drinks, eating Jaffa Cakes and even taking painkillers, due to their aching shoulders.
As the record was finally broken they still did not show their relief - not until ten minutes later when the rally finally ended.
The strength-sapping, energy-draining rally, which was broadcast to 7,000 table tennis fans around the world, has raised 1,400 pounds for a prostate cancer charity.
A video sped up and reduced to just a few minutes has now been posted on Youtube as coach Daniel and father Peter recover from the record set in Plumstead Radical Club in London at the weekend.
Daniel, a coach at the Bristol Table Tennis Academy of Sport, was quoted by the Western Daily Press as saying: "I have never put so much concentration into one thing, I had to remain focused every second throughout.
"I am overwhelmed by the donations and support we got throughout the record. It feels great having broken the world's longest table tennis rally for a sport everyone has played."
He later explained that the idea started with a conversation with his father on New Year's Eve.
Daniel said: "We'd had a few drinks and we were talking about the world record which was broken just last summer. We were chatting about it and we just thought 'you know what, we could do this'. We both wanted to have the record so we set out to get it.
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First Published: Mar 28 2014 | 3:00 PM IST

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