UC Irvine re-takes dodgeball record

After years of back-and-forth with the University of Alberta, the University of California (Irvine) has once again broken the Guinness World Record for largest dodgeball game.

Having risen steadily over the past few years, the record now sits at a daunting 6,000 — destroying the U of A’s 2012 record of around 5,000 people.

U of A Students’ Union Vice-President (Student Life) Saadiq Sumar said plans for another Break the Record game may be in the works for the upcoming Winter semester as the U of A tries once more to take back the record.

“As soon as we found out that Irvine was trying to break our record, we had a little bit of a sit down and we started talking about what (our) course of action would be in terms of organizing (another) Break the Record,” he said.

“It’s definitely something we’re looking into, because it’s our record — it’s not theirs.”

Although Irvine’s goal was to recruit 7,000 for last week’s game, the unofficial count came in at just over 6,000. Sumar said the U of A’s new goal will depend on what the official count turns out to be.

If the official count does come in at 6,000, Sumar said the likely target for the next Break the Record will be 6,500.

“We have started talking about logistics, but it’s been a very limited conversation so far,” he admitted.

“We’ve also been talking to the Dean of Students to figure out funding, because that’s a big thing for Break the Record.”

Sumar added that last year’s effort fell subject to a lack of funding, resulting in some corner-cutting when the proposed budget did not come through as expected.

“We’re trying to look at getting a lot more sponsorship this year, because it’s going to be a lot more expensive,” he said.

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