From Our Correspondent
GUWAHATI: A 22-year-old Assam Police constable, Abhijeet Baruah on Tuesday succeeded in his attempt to enter the Guinness Book of World Records as the first man in the world by running over 150km in 24 hours and that too, barefoot, in the Upper Assam city of Jorhat about 310 km away from Guwahati.
The police constable, who is a member of Assam Police boxing team, started the run at 3:56 pm on Monday in presence of B.K. Chandrasekhar Tiwari, the Indian observer for the Guinness Book of World Records, who had blown the whistle to mark the beginning of the gruelling run.
The barefoot-runner Abhijeet ran 156.2 km at the end of the 24-hour marathon at 3:56 pm on Tuesday making a world record by being the first one to run such a long distance on barefoot for 24 hours under observation of a Guinness Book representative and per guidelines laid down by Guinness Book authority.
Minutes before he blew the whistle, Tiwari, who also represents the Indian Book of Records, said, “The record, if made, will be first of its kind in the world, as the Guinness Book of World Records does not have any record of any individual running such a distance barefoot for 24 hours.”
Tiwari, who arrived in Jorhat on Monday afternoon to oversee the run, had said Abhijeet would have to complete at least 150 km barefoot in 24 hours to gain entry into the record book.
According to the schedule, Abhijeet ran from the NH 37 bypass approach at Tarajan in the western part of Jorhat city to the other approach end of the bypass on the eastern outskirts and back 19 times.
The distance between the one approach of the bypass to another is 10 km. The route was marked every 100 metres in accordance with the guidelines of the global records body.
Tiwari presented the youth with a certificate on the spot on behalf of India Book of Records as soon as he completed the 24-hour run.
Jorhat lad Abhijeet who is a black-belt holder in Karate and kickboxing, is now posted at the Police Training College of Assam at Dergaon in Jorhat district.
“I would not have been able to achieved this feat without the blessings of the Almighty, my parents and support from the administration, senior police officials, friends, well-wishers including the members of my Great Run Club,” Abhijeet told the media after completing his run.
All the documentation, video and still photos related to the event would be sent to the London-based headquarters of Guinness Book for detailed analysis and study.
The atmosphere was festive, as thousands of onlookers assembled on both side of the marathon run route with placards and banners to cheer Abhijeet. Policemen were deployed not only to control the crowd and regulate traffic, but also to cheer their colleague. A vehicle accompanying the runner played music to encourage Baruah and keep him in good spirits.
“.Over 100 officials from government departments, sportsmen, lawyers, medical staff with an ambulance and another 100 volunteers were involved in recording the event and to assist Baruah in various ways during the run.
On May 28 last year, Abhijeet had attempted to enter the Limca Book of Records by covering 150km in 26 hours 31 minutes, which is still under consideration. He has bagged several medals in many national-level martial arts competitions for Assam Police.