By Reynald Magallon
Ryan Ong Alonzo fought off cramps and went on to eclipse the world record for most number of double under skips in 12 hours during the Jump to Greater Heights event at Ayala Malls Circuit Makati on Saturday.
Alonzo, also known as the “Skipman” in jump rope community, officially surpassed the 20,000 Guinness mark of double under skips by doubling it to a total of 40,980 during the 12-hour event which started from morning until 6 p.m
A double under in jump rope is a 720-degree revolution of the rope in a single jump which means the rope has to pass twice under every single skip.
The 34-year-old son of Kumori Japanese Café owner and nephew of vice presidential candidate Dr. Willie Ong needed six hours to break the record after completing 21,327 double skips at noontime and with six more hours left.
At this stage, both his legs were already cramping, but good thing he got timely help from a relative in Benzi Yang – team captain of La Salle swimming team.
With Yang and trainer-coach Gadric Chusenfu providing the legs shaking and stretching and applying ice cubes left and right, the father of one went on to enter his name to history books.
“I’m out of words, it is super overwhelming. Halfway through my legs were cramping. I didn’t expect talaga na maaabot ko pa and when you guys started cheering parang becoming happy lang, suddenly mataas na pala number ko in that hour,” shared Alonzo while also thanking all the people that made the extraordinary feat possible.
Julie Alonzo also thanked the people behind her son’s feat, especially Yang, saying: “Thank you so much Benzi for helping Ryan made the feat possible. You came exactly at the right time. You did all the legs shaking, stretching and ice cubes here and there. And all the morale support and encouraging words ‘Go, go, go Uncle Ryan…Ngayon ka pa mag-give up?”