Man gets Guinness World Record to raise awareness for Palestine
7 October 2019
Kamil Suleiman from Cape Town has become a Guinness World Record holder after running the fastest marathon dressed as a leprechaun, all in solidarity with Palestine.
At this year’s BMW Berlin Marathon in Germany, Suleiman passed the finish line in just under three hours, making it in a time of 2:58.01, all the while waving a Palestine flag.
Dressed in an all green leprechaun outfit with his beard dyed red for the race, the Ethiopian-born software developer proved his dedication in wanting to raise awareness regarding the “Palestinian cause”.
“It’s mischievous and unoffensive. I wanted to do it for the Palestinian the cause,” he told South African newspaper TimesLive.
“I describe myself as an Ethiopian by birth, a South African by residence and a Palestinian by heart.”
He has lived in South Africa for almost 16 years after winning a scholarship to continue his studies in Astrophysics at the University of Cape Town.
On its website, the Guinness World Record website states: “The fastest marathon dressed as a leprechaun (male) is 2 hrs 58 min 01 sec, and was achieved by Kamil Suleiman (South Africa) at the BMW Berlin Marathon, in Berlin, Germany, on September 29 2019. Kamil was wearing a full leprechaun costume with the beard coloured in red.”
The Berlin race was won by the 2016 Olympic marathon winner Eliud Kipchoga in 2:01.39.
This year was Suleiman’s second attempt at the race for the same record as he took part in last year’s London Marathon, during which he missed out of the accolade by just 15 seconds finishing at 2:59:45.
“This year I went and took my revenge and beat the record by 89 seconds, to be exact.”
Participating in the Twitter hashtag #Berlin4Palestine to highlight the plight of Palestinians, he added: “It’s really awesome. When you have an extreme feeling, the first thing is shock. It takes a while to sink in.
“It’s something I do for a cause, but I’m someone ordinary. Someone who has a day job.”
This year, a total of 16 Guinness World Records titles were attempted at BMW Berlin Marathon on 29 September, making it the most popular year to date.
Some of the record holders this year included the fastest marathon dressed as a rocket, fastest marathon dressed as a supervillain and the fastest marathon dressed as a vampire.
