Texas student breaks Guinness record for standing high jump

Nov. 4 (UPI) -- A Texas man said it took him three years of training to capture the Guinness World Record for highest standing jump with a 5-foot, 5-inch vertical leap.

Brett Williams, a student at the University of Texas at Arlington, said he started training for the record when he found out about three years ago that his standing high jump was only 13 inches shy of the world record.

"Some of my buddies were at the gym and they had a little box with a couple of 45 pound weights on it and they asked me to come jump on it and it turns out I was kind of pretty good at it," Williams told KXAS-TV.

Williams' official attempt Sept. 2 has now been certified as a new record by Guinness, which confirmed he jumped 5 feet, 5 inches.

"Most people don't believe me at first," Williams said. "They think I'm lying until I pull up the certificate with my name and all that stuff on it."

Williams said his new goal is to set some track and field records for his school.

"Hopefully I can do well in long jump and high jump for UTA track and field," Williams said. "See if maybe we can break some school records."