British gymnast breaks longest backflip world record
A British gymnast has shattered the world record for longest recorded backflip between horizontal bars.
Ashley Watson, 26, managed to backflip an astonishing 5.87m (as you can see in the video above), and Guinness World Records has now recognised the feat.
Even more remarkable is the fact he actually pulled it off twice, but wasn’t happy with how he landed the first time.
A post shared by Ashley Watson (@ashwatson92) on Nov 21, 2018 at 9:03am PST
“It was amazing, I didn’t realise I had caught it until I was swinging around on the other bar,” he said.
“I caught it on the sixth attempt but I let my legs bend a bit – so I couldn’t let that one go out on film.”
The gymnast has been in the Team GB squad since he was 15 years old, and was the British Championships parallel bars champion in 2015.
He was also 2009 Australian Youth Olympic all around champion, and 2014 British Championships high bar champion.
