Most folks approaching their 60th birthday have one eye on retirement and are content to spend free time relaxing at home. Mark Freed, however, wanted to set a water polo world record before becoming a sexagenarian.
WATER POLO PASSING RECORD
''We're hoping to inspire more young people to take up the fantastic sport of water polo, which I've now been playing now for getting on for 40 years.''
In March of 2019, at Tunbridge Wells Sports Centre in England, 59-year-old Freed and Charlie Exall of the Sevenoaks Sharks water polo team broke the Guinness World Record for the most consecutive passes by a pair.
Successfully completing 95 passes with no drops and without taking a break, Freed and Exall bettered the old record of 65 by nearly 50 percent.
BEHIND THE SCENES
Freed had originally trained with teammate Danny Hanlon for the record attempt, but Hanlon was waylaid by a bout of pneumonia, so Exall stepped (or swam?) in and delivered.
The rules for the record stipulated that the players could not touch the bottom of the pool during the attempt, and the throws must both be continuous and cover at least seven meters in distance.
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