Another year, another world record set by Weijers Domino Productions.
The theme for Domino Day 2009 was "The World in Domino". Each continent had attractions spotlighting their unique landscapes and cultures.
There were also four builder challenges representing the classical elements of earth, water, air and fire. Only one resulted in success, putting the final tally in doubt.
Luckily, there were plenty of dominoes to spare. Of the 4.8 million set up, 4,491,863 dominoes fell. As you can see, the team was pretty happy about that.
Ma Li Hua toppled 303,621 dominoes on August 16th, 2003. She beat the previous record of 281,581 dominoes set by Germany's Klaus Friedrich in 1984.
The 24-year-old "dominologist" from Beijing spent 45 days at the Singapore Expo setting up. She persevered through backaches caused by working over 10 hours a day.
Ms. Ma also had to contend with cockroaches and butterflies that would accidentally knock down her dominoes. The pests (in every sense of the word) were repelled with sticky traps and pungent leaves.
The dominoes took about four minutes to fall and only seven of them remained standing. Ma Li Hua has hinted that she may try to break the group record in the future. |