The Philippines’s latest bid for Guinness World Records happened on 21 July 2019.
According to sports patron and Go For Gold honcho, Jeremy Ranell Go, the record-breaking attempt primarily aims to promote sports development in the country and to actively support our national athletes in all their endeavors especially in the forthcoming staging of the 30th Southeast Asian games in the country in November 2019.
Besides, Go has recently linked up with FIBA in promoting its World Cup.
Jeremy Go, the head organizer, wanted the Filipino ballers, dribblers, and other sports enthusiasts to break the world record of 7,556 Palestinian Arabs who simultaneously dribbled basketballs on 22 July 2010, sponsored by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
Some celebrities like Nadine Lustre, Sam Concepcion, John Roa, and other social media sensations graced the highly anticipated event.
Ecstatic attendees, fans, and onlookers cheered them, notwithstanding the scorching heat and arid environment.
The registration was also available online or through a walk-in.
At the venue, each registrant was given a scannable wrist stub using barcode readers at every gate for automatic transmission and counting of entrants.
However, as the event organizers opened the twenty gates at about 2 pm, only 1,500 participants just registered—a far cry from the expected 7,000 online registrants.
The partakers, including online and walk-in registrants, only doubled to 3,000 or so contestants after 5 pm, the actual time of the simultaneous dribbling.
According to Guinness Adjudicator Swapnil Dangarikar, an Indian national, extending the grace period to get enough participants was up to the organizers for as long as they get the numbers to break the current holder.
Typically, the Guinness adjudicator would assign one steward for every 50 participants to let the latter adhere to the guidelines and rules.
The instruction for Guinness World Records attempt is for each participant to heed standards set upon by the Guinness adjudicator through the steward. The steward will list down all violations, errors, or even erring participants around his jurisdictional quadrant.
The buzzer officially signals the start and end of the dribbling. The duration of dribbling can last up to five minutes. Participants are given three attempts to break the current record.
The organizers still decided to let the passionate participants dribble their basketballs as planned despite getting insufficient turnout. Likewise, they allowed the partakers to take home their basketballs after the event.
All efforts did not come to naught. Ultimately, elated entrants made a Philippine record—if not a world record.
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