Stefan Nygard of Stockholm has broken an unusual world record–the fastest 5K while juggling five balls. Nygard ran 26:30, taking 36 seconds off the previous record of 27:06, set by Matt Feldman of the U.S. in 2011.
Previously, the record was held by joggling sensation Billy Gillen of the U.S., who ran 28:11 in 1989.
The rules of joggling require that whenever one or more balls are dropped, the runner must retrace their steps to where the drop occurred and resume running. Nygard reportedly went 1,100m before his first dropped ball, and dropped balls only eight times.
Feldman (the previous 5K record holder) holds the 5-ball world records for the mile and the 100m.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, Jean-Marc Doiron of Moncton, N.B., won the Legs for Literacy 10K while juggling three balls, in 36:50.
“The 10K at @legsforliteracy was supposed to be a chill tune-up for my @guinnessworldrecords marathon joggling attempt on Oct 20th,” Doiron reported on social media, “But when I looked around me … and saw two guys that were legit 37-minute 10K-ers, I shifted my mindset from workout to race mode. We battled for about 6K, at which point they faded a bit, and I pressed on. At 7K, I thought, man, it would be so cool if I won and didn’t drop, and immediately got nervous about dropping. Thankfully, I kept enough of my cool to keep my balls in the air. Good thing too, because second place was just 30 seconds behind at the finish.”
Last month, Doiron came close to breaking the world record for the fastest half-marathon while juggling three balls at a race in Rimouski, Que., missing it by only 40 seconds. He will take another shot at the marathon (three-ball) joggling record at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon on Oct. 20.
3-ball joggling vs. 5-ball joggling
Joggling five balls is considerably more difficult than joggling three–just ask Canada’s own Michal Kapral, who recently set the world record for the farthest continuous distance run while joggling three balls. (He ran 115 km.) “I’ve only gone 500m joggling five balls without dropping, and my biceps were on fire,” he says. Kapral, a former editor of Canadian Running, also holds the world record for the fastest marathon while juggling three balls (2:50:12, set in 2007).
According to Scott Jenkins of the U.K., who maintains a database of accomplishments in joggling, a world record for a marathon while juggling five balls has only ever been set twice, the last time in 2010 at the Chicago Marathon, by Barry Goldmeier of the U.S., who ran 5:51:41.
Not all jogglers are men, however, Jenkins’s list does not indicate that any results for women juggling five balls; Sarah Szefi of the U.S. set the women’s record for a three-ball marathon at 4:02:30 at the 2018 Chicago Marathon. Canada’s Gabrielle Foran holds both the 10K record (40:06) and the 5K record (18:12) while juggling three balls.
