Bangladeshi cyclists secure Guinness record
A team of Bangladeshi amateur cyclists bagged a Guinness world record by cycling 1600 km distance in 48 hours.
"The greatest distance cycled in 48 hours by a relay team is 1670.334 km (1037.89 miles) and was achieved by Drabir Alam, Tanvir Ahmed, Mohammad Alauddin and Rakibul Islam, (who are known as TeamBDC) (all Bangladesh) in Dhaka, Bangladesh on 10 December 2021," the Guinness authorities mentioned on their website today.
During the aftermath of cyclone Jawad, the event was held in clumsy weather in Dhaka's Purbachal during December 08-10 in collaboration with Dabur Bangladesh and Prothom Alo.com.
According to Team BDC press release, the Guinness officials had been analysing various data for nearly a month after the event and finalised the decision yesterday by putting together 48-hour video footage from six cameras, certificates signed by thirteen witnesses, surveyor's report, numerous photos, GPS ride data, so on and so forth. This happens to be the inaugural record of this particular event, which was freshly introduced of late.
"The record holders (who are known as Team BDC) are a cycling team and since they had no events to compete in due to pandemic related lockdowns, they decided they'd train to attempt this Guinness World Records title so that they could break it as a team," the Guinness mentioned further.
Rakibul Islam, one of the four cyclists, told The Daily Star: "We were equally excited and nervous from the beginning of this attempt, something that was calculated on pen and paper.
"There were a lot of challenges: sleepless 48 hours, cold, and winter rain in the late night while continuous speedy cycling. But we were physically and mentally prepared to conquer all those barriers.
"Boys lost their extra weight, maintained proper diet, trained harder and structured better than any time before. And the support system from the community and sponsors were flawless. But in the end, after a grueling effort, we made Bangladesh proud to hold the record in the cycling sport," Rakibul stated.
Abdullah Salman Siddique, one of the organisers, told The Daily Star about the significance of the event.
"We are lagging behind in cycling as a world sport. As a competitive event, cycling in Bangladesh is yet to be popular. We could not enter the world cycling championship. Our aim was to organise this event to make cycling popular in Bangladesh.
"Besides, we organised this event last December to mark the 50 years of Bangladesh's independence. We will organise more interesting cycling events to make it popular in Bangladesh," Salman concluded.
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