Just a hop, skip and jump for record

By Kelly Yates
CASEY school students will have to wait months to discover whether or not their skipping efforts have broken a world record.
To celebrate the Heart Foundation Jump Rope for Heart program’s 25th birthday, more than 10,000 students from all over Victoria skipped simultaneously last Friday at 11.30am for three minutes with no breaks, in an attempt to break the current Guinness world record.
The current record is held in the United Kingdom by just under 8000 participants skipping at various locations for three minutes. Now Australia is attempting to smash that with 70,000 people skipping.
The Heart Foundation of Victoria’s CEO Kathy Bell said she was extremely optimistic that Australia would blitz the current world record.
“We had around 70,000 students skipping at the same time,” she said.
Ms Bell said the feedback about the event was that all involved found it exciting.
“The kids were training for weeks prior to the event,” she said.
“It’s a win-win for all. Everyone had fun while raising funds for a good cause.”
Tooradin Primary School had 150 students participating while Kilberry Valley Primary School had 200 students.
Narre Warren South’s ICA Casey College had 150 students involved.
Each participant was filmed and the footage will go to the Guinness World Records authorities.
The official results from the mass participation skipping event will be available within the next few months.
The Heart Foundation Jump Rope for Heart program was established in Australia in 1983.
Since then, more than 8 million Australian school children have participated in the program to promote health and fun while raising more than $60 million dollars.