Rubik's Cube world record set by Teenager

Erik Akkersdijk, 18, broke the world record for solving a standard 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube, with a time of 7.08 seconds at the Czech Open at the weekend.

Australia's quickest Rubik's Cube solver Jasmine Lee, who completed the puzzle in 20.37 seconds at the UK Open in 2006, said Akkersdijk's new mark would be hard for anyone to beat.

"That new record is pretty amazing - over 1.5 seconds faster than the previous record. That's a big margin at the top levels of competitive cubing," she said.

Akkersdijk had held the record before with a time of 9.77 seconds, set during the Dutch Open in 2007.

Bu that record had been beaten by Edouard Chambon (9.18 seconds at the Murcia Open 2008 ) and then Japan's Yu Nakajima (8.72 seconds the Kashiwa Open 2008).

In competitive cubing, each cube is rotated by officials into a random configuration unveiled to the solver when the clock starts.

In official compeition only 13 people have ever solved the cube in less than 10 seconds and all those times have been set in the last two years.

Akkersdijk, an environmental management student, took up speedcubing in 2005 and on his website he lists his other hobbies as chess, juggling, building model airplanes and swimming.