The greatest athlete you’ve never heard of

^{Suresh Joachim meets Hollywood star Susan Sarandon before setting a new world record by watching 57 films in 123 hours. Photo: Getty Images}

He was born in Sri Lanka, lives in Canada, he’s multi-talented, raises money for charity, and has broken more than 60 world records – including several record-breaking performances in Australia.

 

Who is he? He is Canada’s record-breaking machine, Suresh Joachim. Here’s six things you need to know about him.

 

1) He’s obsessed with breaking world records

The Sri Lanka-born Joachim discovered the Guinness Book of World Records in 1991 – an event that changed his life. Joachim figured that breaking world records was the easiest way for an ordinary person to become famous, having obviously failed to predict the rise of reality television.

So he set a new record himself, running a few kilometres every hour – for 1000 consecutive hours. At the end of the feat, he had travelled 3,495km and had his name in the Guinness World Records.

By July 2010, Joachim had broken a total of 63 world records. And he’s still going.

2) He’s an endurance freak

Many of Joachim’s records are the type of bizarre, pointless exercises you see all over the Guinness Book these days. Like holding the most number of eggs in your hand at one time (19) or eating a lemon in the quickest time (30.97 seconds).

But others are genuinely amazing feats of endurance. He is the fastest man to have run 100 miles on a treadmill (13 hours, 42 minutes, 33 seconds). He also holds records for the longest dancing marathon (31 hours), longest solo drumming marathon (84 hours) and longest ten-pin bowling marathon (100 hours). In 1997, he balanced on one foot for 76 hours and 40 minutes.

“I can break any of the records in the world, endurance type,” Joachim told Toronto’s CityNews in Canada.

He says he has been offered the chance to train for the Olympics, but has turned them down.

“If I come to you and you train me for four years so I get one Olympic record, no problem.... [But] I’m wasting my time.” The way he sees it, why break one record when you can break dozens?

3) He’s got an Australian connection

Joachim is a former Australian resident, and several of Joachim’s records have taken place down under. Following up his first treadmill record, Joachim ran for 214.96km over 48 hours on a treadmill in Melbourne in 2002. His second-ever record-breaking attempt involved running 225.44km up and down escalators at the Westfield shopping centre in Burnwood, New South Wales.

Other records achieved in Australia including the longest distance covered while crawling (56.62km) and the longest distance while carrying a 4.5kg brink in an ungloved hand – running for 126.68km around the Westfield mall in Hornsby, NSW.

He can even break records standing completely still – which he did for 21 consecutive hours and 30 minutes, another of his records completed in Australia, to pip the previous mark of 20 hours and 10 minutes.

4) He’s a (record-breaking) movie star

The jack-of-all trades has already starred in one movie and has two more in the works. The first, released in India in 2009, was the fastest film ever made – going from script to screen in under 12 days. The Tamil-language film, ‘Sivappu Mazhai’, runs for just over two hours and cost about $1 million to make.

For his next movie, he plans to set a new record for the most red carpet appearances by a film star in 12 hours. And for his third, he will personally play the part of 35 different characters (a world record, obviously), as well as taking the roles of writer and director.

5) He’s married

Joachim was married to Christa Rasanayagam in Canada in 2003, in a low-key ceremony. Just kidding, his wedding featured 47 groomsmen, 79 bridesmaids, and a 60-metre bouquet – all new world records.

6) He does it for a good cause

There is a motive behind Joachim’s record-breaking madness. His childhood home of Jaffna, Sri Lanka, has been hit hard by poverty and ethnic violence against the local Tamil population. He has used his public record-breaking appearances to raise awareness and money for children’s charities and anti-violence initiatives, and is aiming to raise a lot more with his next big project.

That project is his planned “world peace marathon”, which will take in 55 countries and run from Christmas day 2012 to June 24, 2013. Joachim wants to run 5,200km in every capital city he reaches, with the goal of raising a whopping $1 billion – which would surely be some kind of record, BigPond Sport reports.