PH cage marathon shatters world mark

By: June Navarro - 10 years ago

Photo from Basketball Marathon Official Instagram account (@neverstopph)

MANILA, Philippines — At one point in the longest basketball game ever played, some of the players were on the brink of calling it quits.

But determination and resolve pushed the participants of the Philippine Basketball Marathon to carry on and they eventually set a new world record in playing non-stop for over 120 hours.

The 24 players from two teams erased the previous world record of 112 hours and 13 seconds set by the Missouri Athletic Club in St. Louis, Missouri, on March 21-25, 2012.

Now entered in the Guinness World Records are Philippine cage marathoners Larry Macapanpan, Owen Mabaga, Robbie Dell Macatbag, John Ray Mappala, Sandy Cenal, Abraham Compuesto III, Evan Lazana, Carlo Ferdinand Vasquez, Helino Francisco Jr., Kerr Bangeles, Harold Lomtong, Luis Jay Volante, Santos Tominio, Justo Quita Jr., Hazel Foja, Robert Clark Bear, Paul Michael dela Pena, Adin Rome Santos, Renell Montecillo, Jopet Quiro, Maricar Convencido and American participants Tony Tatar, Chuck Williams and JeffreyMoore.

Team Bounce Back won over Team Walang Iwanan, 16,783-16,732, at Meralco gym with the scores of both teams and their outputs combined eclipsing the numbers set in Missouri.

Making the event possible were sponsors Mitsubishi, PG Flex, Ace Hardware, Accel, Yakult, Medical City, Phoenix Petroleum, Bacchus Energy Drink, Burlington, AirAsia-Zest, Lamoiyan, Iwata, Innovatronix, Timex, Canon, Power Mac, Segway, Spenco, Gold’s Gym, Molten, Coleman and Oster

The participants began playing 9 a.m. Monday and stopped past 9 a.m. yesterday, surviving the strain, exhaustion and homesickness to accomplish the record designed for the noble goal of raising funds for the benefit of Supertyphoon “Yolanda” victims.

“It’s overwhelming. It shows that the Filipinos are really world beaters,” said organizer Discovery-Access chief operating officer Jacque Ruby.

Adjudicator Turath Alsaraf, the Guinness director for records management team, witnessed the historic event.

As soon as they eclipsed the Missouri mark, the Filipino players saluted Tatar, Williams and Moore who also played in the Missouri game.

Ruby said there was a point in the game the players wanted to quit but they pushed themselves to continue.