In it for the long haul
Cloncurry Bowls Club manager enters the record books as only person ever to play 73 hours of continuous bowls. (Pictured left: Cloncurry Bowls Club’s ‘Marathon Man’ Shayne Barwick before he embarked on his huge 73 hour bowls session on Friday morning.)
The large crowd was eager to watch Cloncurry Bowls Club’s manager Shayne ‘The Marathon Man’ Barwick finish his epic 73 hour bowls stint today at 10:00am (Jan, 9), which set the Guinness World Record for the longest session of lawn bowling ever by a single player.
The Aussie battler became a viral sensation for his effort to aid his beloved bowls club, stopping for only 10 minutes every four hours Shayne played for three days straight playing close to 100 people winning around 50 per cent of his games despite his fatigue.
Aiming to raise $20,000 for a veranda to cover the disabled ramp at the club Shayne came up with the idea of bowling continuously after a simple mistake, he believed the previous record was 73 hours after seeing the number 73 when checking the Guinness World Records website.
He then made his plans for the record attempt public before he revisited the website and realised that what he thought was the previous record was actually a man’s age unrelated to his goal.
“I thought bugger it, I’m going to break the world record,” Barwick told the ABC.
“You seriously don’t want to know what I thought when I realised.
“I could have done 25 hours and it would have been a record.”
Starting at 9:00am on Friday morning Shayne began his world record bid with an ambulance crew on standby to monitor Shayne throughout his endeavour as he began the longest continuous session of bowls of his life, smashing his previous record of between eight to 12 hours.
Still going strong over six hours after the record has been set Shayne is still yet to have slept and is currently celebrating his achievement at the pub (as of 2.29pm).
Donations continue to pour into the Cloncurry Bowls Club and as counted so far Shayne has managed to raise more than $6,000.
The club is still accepting donations and if you would like to help the Cloncurry Bowls Club reach its goal please click here.
