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400-Pound Sumo Wrestler Smashes Guinness World Record

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — Kelly Gneiting, 40, who weighed in at 396.2 pounds after the marathon, officially beat the past world record of 275 pounds after completing the LA Marathon Sunday in 9 hours, 48 minutes and 52 seconds.

Kelly Gneiting
Sumo wrestler Kelly Gneiting weighs in for the LA Marathon. (credit: Matt Hartman of Shorealone Films)

Gneiting even beat his 2008 marathon time of 11 hours, 52 minutes and 11 seconds. That marathon attempt did not make the record books because he did not follow Guinness requirements that he be weighed immediately before and after the race, and that the entire race be filmed.

The three-time United States sumo champion said he trained for the marathon with a six-mile jog on Saturdays, in addition to walking a mile-and-a-half each way to his job as a statistician at the Fort Defiance Indian Hospital.

Gneiting told the Los Angeles Times he jogged the first eight miles and walked the final 18, losing track after mile 10 because he felt delirious.

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