They may have some time to wait before they know for sure, but a Nova Scotia community believes they have beaten the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest washer toss tournament.
The tournament was part of the first-ever Tide Fest — East Hants’ homecoming weekend and took place at the East Hants Sportsplex in Lantz, N.S.
Kody Blois, president of the Come Home East Hants Association which runs the festival, said the idea for the washer competition was one of the events set up for Tide Fest.
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He said washer toss was decided on for two reasons: the first due to accessibility and the second to create a cause to rally behind.
“Whether you’re young, old, athletic background or not, everyone can kind of pick up a washer and throw it at a box and be part of a world record,” Blois said. “If we can rally as a community to set a world record washer toss then we can rally as a community to do many other good things.
The whole competition started taking shape more than a year ago when the association approached Eric White, past president of the Hants North Minor Baseball Association, with the idea. White said he first had to get Guinness on board and submitted an application, then once it was accepted they went about booking the facility and figuring out how to run the competition.
The current record is held by Wise County in Texas with 486 participants. According to Blois, 626 people participated in the competition this weekend.
Blois said he was concerned about whether there would be enough people to break the record until the final week, but then people started signing up in the final days. People from Alberta, New Brunswick and Ohio, among other places, registered for the challenge.
WATCH: Global’s Shelley Steeves met two Ontarians in Shediac taking part in the Canadian Transplant Games first ever washer toss tournament. And, let’s just say it took them a while to get warmed up to this popular game.
Teams of two were put into a division of five teams with four round-robin games played. The top two from each division would move onto the playoffs. From there, a single elimination was done for the winning team to get the $2,000 prize. The winning team was from New Brunswick, with the second place team from the Annapolis Valley.
Blois himself participated in the event as well and said it was an experience.
“It was almost a little bit surreal when you were stepping up to the box to throw because there were teams beside you, on either side, and pretty much as far as you could see within the field house facility at the Sportsplex,” Blois said.
In an e-mail, Guinness World Records confirmed they received the application for the title of “Largest washer toss tournament” and said it was under review by the records management team. The next step is for official statements, photos and videos documenting the attempt, and other materials to be submitted by the applicant and reviewed.
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Blois said he has gathered all the information needed and will be submitting it shortly to Guinness. He added he saw Wise County had been asked if they’d challenge the record if East Hants earns the title, but the county officials only said it took almost a year to verify their records.
In their e-mail to Global News, Guinness said the standard review process can take up to 12-15 weeks.
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