Sonu Oraon at a gym in Ranchi. Picture by Ashok Karan

Ranchi, May 12: Poverty cannot deter him from rigorous practice sessions at a city gym. What he performed today is almost beyond the physical endurance of most of the human beings.

Son of a telephone operator in the deputy commissioner?s office, Sonu Oraon has successfully attempted 34 single-handed chinning in 30 seconds which is seven chinning more than the existing world record with the Guinness World Records.

Chinning is a type of physical exercise in which one has to pull himself up to his chin with both the hands, or with one hand, gripping a bar set quite high above his head.

This 25-year-old youth from Chutia has found support from the Jharkhand Powerlifting Association, which has made a contact with the Guinness World Records online claiming it to be a world record. However, Guinness officials told the association that there are certain norms that had to be taken into account before they certify Sonu?s feat as a new world record.

Sonu, who has completed his matriculation, displayed his performance in front of several newspersons here this morning. What made him taking up this challenge? ?I was watching a news channel two years ago in which I saw that the existing world record is of 27 chinning. I was already taking training from Indrajeet Singh of National Gym who is also a powerlifter. He took up the task of guiding me for the next couple of years. I underwent rigorous training under a fixed routine. Initially, I did eight chinning normally but after a certain point, I could not go beyond 25 single-handed chinning in 30 seconds,? said Sonu, who has also done a two-year course for being an electrician from the city-based Industrial Training Institute.

?I took it very seriously and after hours of dedicated practice, I finally done 30 chinning in 30 seconds. Today, I have even done 34 chinning in the same time. I concentrated on hand-specific exercises and continued a fixed routine. This practice has paid dividends now. In future, I want to improve this record further and even take on powerlifting and earn laurels for the state as well as for the country,? said Sonu, whose father, Halku Oraon, works as a telephone operator in the deputy commissioner?s office while two of his brothers are studying in St Xavier?s College and the other two in Class IX in St John?s School.

Indrajeet Singh, secretary of the powerlifting association, said as chinning is not an event neither in the National Games nor in the Olympics, this record would not come as an individual feat. ?We had approached the Guinness officials and they have requested for certain documents after which they would come here and verify it physically. Sonu was very dedicated right from the beginning which has paid at last,? said Singh.