Clarissa Schoeman is the latest Telkom Movie Marathon contestant to be disqualified, when she fell asleep at 12:25 on Friday afternoon. This leaves only three contestants who are still in the race to set a new record, certified by Guinness World Records, for the longest time spent watching movies. Clarissa’s total viewing time was 68 hours 25 minutes. By Staff Writer
Earlier on Friday, Delon Munian fell asleep at 1:46am, and also had his eyes away from the screen for longer than 10 seconds. David Erasmus fell asleep at 3:25am.
The three remaining contestants are:
- Suresh Joachim (Canada)
- Sheetal Vallabh (South Africa)
- Lionel Havenga (South Africa)
The rules of the record attempt state that contestants may not sleep or take their eyes off the screen while watching the movie, and they are allowed only a ten minute rest break between movies. Movies have to be at least 90 minutes in length, and they must watch the entire film until the credits end.
At 2:25pm today, the remaining three contestants had clocked 70 hours 25 minutes, putting them over the half-way mark.
“As we get into the second half of the competition, we’re starting to see the real endurance that is required for our contestants to beat the clock. They’ve done so well so far and we hope that they can stay in the game until Sunday afternoon,” said Jacqui O’Sullivan, Managing Executive for Group Communication and Public Relations at Telkom.
The current record stands at 120 hours 23 minutes, and the contestants are attempting to spend over 122 hours watching movies delivered via Telkom’s BOLTSPEED fibre. This is the first time the record has been attempted by streaming content over high-speed internet.
On Thursday morning, Buhlebethu Hlatswayo fell asleep at 2:50am, having watched for 34 hours 51 minutes. Aqeel Dockrat voluntarily withdrew after 13 hours 38 minutes due to ill health on Wednesday. Three others were disqualified on the same day: Tibor Donatus Kurucz, Tiberius Tjo and Louis Marx fell asleep for between seven and 20 minutes each, after they had been participating for 12 hours 42 minutes, 14 hours 22 minutes, and 14 hours 5 minutes respectively.
Suresh Joachim, an international endurance competitor who holds multiple titles, arrived in South Africa on Monday morning to compete against ten South African contestants backed by 94.7 listeners and chosen from over 100 local movie fans.
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