Cuban Erick Hernández sets record for ball possession
HAVANA, July 16. Erick Hernández has not yet written the last page of his very long list of ball control records. At 56, the former Cuban soccer playerHe continues to charm the ball, just as he demonstrated this Saturday at the Copacabana hotel in the capital, where he achieved a new record in the sitting modality, only with his feet and a weight of 1.5 kilograms tied to each ankle.
According to the EFE agency, Hernández managed to dominate the ball for a space of 3:04.02 hours, which earned him to surpass his previous mark, set at 3:02.03 in September 2018.
On that occasion, the Antillean surpassed the primacy of Luis Carlos García, also from Havana.
Erick, for the umpteenth time, showed off his concentration, sobriety, focus and hard preparation to maintain control of the ball for a long time and in extreme situations, in this case with weight on each of his ankles. However, this did not represent a problem for the stellar dominator, who fulfilled his objective without major shocks.
In any case, the exercise demanded a remarkable physical effort from Hernández, who assured the journalists present at the record attempt that he was very demanding on the quadriceps, abdomen, upper back, shoulders and trapezius.
This is Erick’s second record in 2023, after the one he achieved last February, also from a sitting position and with a weight of 1.5 kilograms on his ankles, but dominating the ball only with his head. On that occasion, he controlled the ball for 1:12.05 and broke his own mark of 1:10.
Known as “El Dominador”, Hernández holds several Guinness records: in 2005, for touching the ball 319 times in one minute with his head, and in 2009, when he controlled the ball with his thighs for one hour and 28 minutes.
In April last year he gave -standing- 351 touches with his head to the ball during one minute and thus surpassed the mark that was held by the Chinese Gao Chong, with 341.
In 2020, from his home due to the isolation forced by the pandemic, he repeated his presence in the Guinness Book, when he hit his head 188 times in just 30 seconds, to beat the previous mark by one, which he himself It had been approved in 2011.
Hernández began practicing ball control in 1994, a tradition first practiced by his brother Douglas, a forerunner of the specialty in Cuba.
Since then he has tested his ability to touch the ball with almost every part of the body, achieving mastery marks with thighs, knees, feet, head, sitting, standing or running the 100m and marathon. .
