AREQUIPA, Peru – Former Cuban soccer player Erick Hernández, world and Guinness record holder in the specialty of ball control, broke another record this Saturday by dominating the ball with his head from a sitting position for 1:15:03:81 hours with a ballast on his ankles of three kilograms.
A report from the state Cuban News Agency (ACN) points out that, at the Hotel Copacabana in Havana, Hernández left behind his own record of 1:12.05 established in February 2023.
With the current feat, the 58-year-old former soccer player breaks his fifth world record in 2024, with which he showed his ability to not drop the ball, whether with his forehead, legs or other parts of the body, in the place or during distance travel.
“I feel the exhaustion of a very demanding year after five attempts, in which I had too much load in the first test in which I remained standing, 12 hours and six minutes touching the ball only with my lower extremities,” he declared to the ACN the record holder.
The last record surpassed at the Copacabana Hotel had been achieved on October 12, by touching the ball 13,985 times during an hour, with his head, feet and thighs.
The Cuban entered for the first time Guinness book of the records in 2005, for touching the ball with his head 319 times during one minute. Since then, he has established several brands and apparently the passage of time does not stop him.
“I am still active at almost 60 years old, because I have had a very methodical life, maintaining a balanced diet and respecting the work-rest relationship (…) To my followers, I tell you to have a lot of faith and confidence that I will achieve this record. Thanks to them I have maintained motivation,” highlighted Hernández. last october.
Owner of a career with more than thirty universal records, Erick achieved his third feat on November 17 in the Marabana Popular Race; He walked 10 km of the international circuit while touching the ball with various parts of his body.
“Next year 2025 I will try to set records with tennis balls (…) over the years I have sought to make the records more complex not only due to time but also with the creation of modalities,” the Physical Culture graduate informed the press.