History was made in Farmers Branch, TX, on Sunday at the 2023 Biofreeze USA Pickleball National Championships.
A new Guinness World Record attempt for the most participants in a continuous pickleball match was successfully completed when 288 players hit the court along “Pickleball Boulevard” over a 12-hour period from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. CT.
Ben Johns And Anna Leigh Waters
World No. 1s Ben Johns and Anna Leigh Waters participated in 10-minute intervals, officially securing their names in the record books, with their achievement surpassing the previous record of 250 players.
All 288 participants will receive an official Guinness World Records certificate to commemorate their involvement, pending authentication, after a careful review of 12 hours of video footage and other materials by Guinness World Records.
Amazing Response
PPA Tour event planner Brook Thygerson, who led the Guinness World Record attempt, was thrilled at the remarkable response to this unique initiative, saying, “Technically, Nationals didn’t start until Monday, so I was worried that nobody was going to show up, and I’d have to pull in our staff to play, but we had waitlist upon waitlist to participate.
People were asking every time they walked by me, ‘Can I jump in? How do I sign up?’ If we had more time and more bandwidth, I bet we could’ve played for a whole 24 hours with the amount of people that wanted to jump in for this event.”
Deep Eddy Vodka was the main sponsor and provided red and yellow “Drink Vodka. Break Records” t-shirts to all participants.
An Excellent Start To The Nationals
Team Ruby Red Vodka narrowly defeated Team Lemon Vodka, scoring 657 points to 636 points.
Waters obviously enjoyed her time on the court, saying, “Setting world records, I like to be a part of that.”
Johns was also keen to add, “I was excited. Setting pickleball records [is awesome] for sure, but now a world record, that’s a step up.”
It truly served as an excellent start to the Nationals festivities for all involved.
