Athlete climbs 164-foot rope in under 4 minutes for Guinness record

Dec. 2 (UPI) -- A South African climber scaled a 164-foot rope hanging between two towers in under 4 minutes to break a Guinness World Record.

Thomas Van Tonder climbed a rope hanging between the towers at the decommissioned coal-fired power station in Soweto, South Africa, in 3 minutes and 19.68 seconds, enough to claim the Guinness record for fastest time to climb a 164-foot rope.

Van Tonder said he chose the rope climbing record because it relates to obstacle course racing, which he has been doing professionally since 2013.

"I figured I could look at some disciplines inside of obstacle racing and try blow it up to a massive scale. Rope climb kept coming up, and as we started looking into venues, we came across the Orlando Towers, it ticked all the boxes," Van Tonder said after the attempt, which was sponsored by Red Bull.