Bhubaneswar: Odisha para-athlete Kamalakanta Nayak entered the Guinness Book of World Record by covering about 220 km in 24 hours in a manual wheelchair in Bhubaneswar. So far, it is the ‘greatest distance’ covered in a wheelchair.
Before Nayak, Portugal’s Mario Trinidad held the world record for covering the maximum distance in a manual wheelchair, covering 182.4 km.
Nayak beat the record with plenty of time to go, covering 184 km at 12:45 pm on Sunday (January 16) in 20:15 hours. The event, which began at 4.30 pm on Saturday, concluded at 4:30 PM on Sunday.
The to-and-fro distance from Rajmahal to Master Canteen –approximately 1.14 km — was the lap for the super ultra-marathon. In between, Kamal had his food, therapy, CIC and hydration done.
After achieving the record, Nayak said: “Nothing is impossible in life. I am thankful to my sister and mentors who motivated me to overcome the physical barriers.”
He is the only Indian who completed a wheelchair ultra-marathon of 139.57 km in 15 hours. He has completed 16 half-marathons and 13 full marathons. Born in a village in Puri district, Nayak is the captain of the Odisha Wheelchair Basketball Team. In 2020, he made a record-setting journey of over 4,200 km in a wheelchair.
Years back, he had suffered a spinal cord injury, which rendered him paralysed waist down. Just when he thought that his life had come to a standstill, destiny turned its wheels. He came across Dr PP Mohanty at the National Institute of Rehabilitation Training and Research, Olatpur. He bounced back to life at the institute.
Besides sports and marathon, he also became a champion in Peer Mentoring Paralysed Spinal Cord Injury Person across the country. So far, he has impacted the lives of about 500 persons with spinal cord injury.
