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Japanese man skips rope 151,409 times in 24 hours

By Ben Hooper
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Nov. 2 (UPI) -- A Japanese jump rope enthusiast broke a Guinness world record for most skips over a rope in 24 hours when he hit a total of 151,409 skips.

Hijiki Ikuyama, 36, who has previously broken numerous rope-skipping world records, alternated between using a larger rope held by assistants and using his own smaller rope when he spent 24 hours working to beat Isabel Bush's record of 151,036 skips.

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"It was so tough I had to take 10-minute breaks every 20 minutes," Ikuyama said. "The guidelines allowed me to skip a large rope spun by assistants so the plan was to alternate between a large rope and short rope."

"But for the long rope, we didn't practice together beforehand, and we couldn't synchronize properly so I kept on trapping the rope and losing time," he said.

"Eight hours before the end of the attempt, I ditched the large rope and skipped solo -- I thought I have to go and push the limit," Ikuyama said.

He finished with a total 151,409 skips, enough to take the record.

Ikuyama said his interest in the sport began at a young age.

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"I had a crush on my teacher, and I was thinking of ways to get some attention from her. Because she was pretty good at rope skipping, I thought mastering that would impress her," he said.

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