PH sets record but won’t be official until Guinness approves

The Philippines is attempting to set the Guinness record for the longest basketball game played at 120 hours. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/ Basketball Marathon’s official Twitter account @neverstopph

MANILA, Philippines — Battling through injuries and fatigue, the Philippines surpassed the previous record of 112 hours and 13 seconds of nonstop basketball early Saturday.

But the Basketball Marathon record will still undergo thorough review and won’t be official until the Guinness adjudicator declares it.

“I’m confident that our players are going to set the record. My fear now is Guinness because even if we set the record at 120, she can cite some technicality and say no you violated a guideline and say you overlooked this and say the claim is rejected, that’s our biggest fear right now,” said Jacque Ruby, chief operating officer (COO) of Access Discovery Channel, at the Meralco Gym.

“She’s going to review, I’m not sure but I presume not all 120 hours of video. And we set up a private room for her so she will review the logbooks, all the video and evidence that we prepared for her. The power is in the hands of one person,” said Ruby.

Participants of the Basketball Marathon celebrate after reaching the 100th hour Friday. MARK GIONGCO

Ruby is wary of two particular guidelines imposed by Guinness. One is “they have to play within the spirit of the rules of the sport” and the other is the players having to leave the court to go to the bathroom.

“During graveyard shift you’ll see players not running anymore, stays at the other end and just waits for the ball and that’s not an actual game anymore, she can cite that,” he said. “The other one is going to the toilet that can be cited because ideally, if they want to be treated, medicated it should be at the sleeping quarters but there’s not enough space because they imposed courtside sleeping area so there’s not enough space so they have to go out,” he added.

Ruby also said that the three Americans namely Jeff Moore, Chuck Williams and Tony Tatar, who also took part in the United States’ record-setting attempt last year were stunned with Guinness’ strict guidelines.

“The adjudicator, I don’t know if she knows basketball, so I hope she has a bit of leniency but she is very strict. The Americans are even shocked, the three Americans playing are the current world record holders in 2012. When they set the record in March 2012, they used a smaller board, they didn’t have a 24-second shot clock they didn’t even videotape the whole attempt. They’re even allowed to play barefoot. They’re very strict with us. So should they award it to us we’ve raised the bar so high.”

The Americans broke the previous record (110) by just two hours. The Filipinos aim to set it at 120 hours and will have to continue playing until 9am on Saturday for them to achieve their goal.

As of posting, the two teams have already scored more than 15,500 points each.

Apart from the three Americans, who made the cut, 21 Filipinos, one of whom is a female PE teacher Maricar Convencido, also composed of the two teams.

“To me, Maricar, I was right in picking her. She really played with among the boys. People thought it’s basketball skills. Maricar is not the best female baller in the country but what we’re really looking for was mental toughness because that will help you sustain. The first day, it’s all athleticism and skill set but at this point in time you really have to will it,” Ruby marveled.

Convencido, like every participant, made it through the two tryouts, underwent extensive conditioning and medical tests and a panel interview to make the final 24.

The Basketball Marathon 2014, through Gawad Kalinga’s OPLAN Walang Iwanan, also aims to build 22 houses and a basketball court in the Visayas.

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