In her 200 year history, Mexico has never seen as many Guinness World Records set as 2010! From Mentos and Soda fountains in Mexico City, to carpets of flowers and now rope-wielding Charros in Guadalajara Mexico is fast becoming a hub of record-breaking. Last year at the 16th international meeting of mariachi and charrería, the Guadalajara Chamber of Commerce, Services and Tourism organised the largest mariachi performance with a 549 mariachis performing. This year, on 4 September 2010, they wanted to embrace the charrería aspect of the annual event so what better record to attempt than the most people twirling lassos.Ralph Hannah, the Guinness World Records adjudicator for all of Latin America, was invited to oversee the attempt. The previous record stood at 23 people, set last year during the Stockyards Rodeo Championships in Texas, USA. On a sweltering day at the Lienzo Charro Nito Aceves a total of 81 people, including national Charro champion Nito Aceves himself, gathered together to bring this record to Mexican soil.
Registration had been done in advance with each participant receiving a sticker on arrival to indicate where they had to stand in the carefully marked out bull ring. The participants had varying experiences of twirling a lasso, from children still at Charrería schools, to women who practice for fun, to professional Charros. It was wonderful to see so many people getting involved. The rules state that all
participants must twirl the lasso simultaneously for two minutes. These participants kept going for 3 minutes and they did much more than simply twirl rope. They performed tricks and passed the rope around their head or entire body in what is referred to by Charrería enthusiasts as "floreando la soga", the closest English translation being "trick roping".Ralph Hannah had to discount 12 people who didn't maintain the lasso moving for the duration of the attempt but with 69 people in total the Guinness World Records record had been truly thrashed! It was another record for Guadalajara who also boasts the fastest restaurant, largest CPR training session and the truly traditional largest tequila exhibition, to name but a few. The Guadalajara Chamber of Commerce, Services and Tourism are already thinking what record attempt to bring to this beautiful city next year!
Source - guinnessworldrecords
