New York man holds 100 Guinness records

NEW YORK - A New York businessman achieved the record of all records, becoming the first person to simultaneously hold 100 Guinness World Records.

Guinness World Records confirmed Wednesday evening that 54-year-old Ashrita Forman is holding 100 records that have never been bested. Furman made his first entry into the Guinness Book of World Records 30 years ago, by doing 27,000 jumping jacks within five hours.

He said he has achieved about 230 records, but many of them have since been broken.

Furman, who manages a health food store in Queens, earned his 100th title Tuesday by arranging the group reading of a poem in 110 languages, including Zulu and Rhaeto-Romanic.

The poem read was titled ‘Precious’, by Indian spiritual leader and artist Sri Chinmoy, who before his death in 2007 also held several records. Furman recruited more than 100 New York friends to recite the poem in their language, beating Hong Kong’s International Social Service who five months ago presented a text in 79 languages.

Guinness World Records, formerly known as the Guinness Book of World Records, has been published each year since 1955 and sold 100 million copies until 2003.