The Ironman Cometh
June 7th, 2007
Pulling a double-decker bus with your right ear for 25 metres is not exactly everyone's idea of fun. But for Manjit Singh, it's become a way of life.
The "Ironman of Leicester", as he calls himself, runs a security services company but doubles up as a superhuman holding 30 world records, from the sublime to the ridiculously dangerous.
"My Ironman image fits well with the idea of security," Manjit said. "I signed a contract with a firm recently simply because they recognised me from previous record attempts. The business is good."
Manjit, 57, caught the bug at a young age.
"I started lifting stones twice my size when I was 13 in my village in India," he said. Manjit's physical prowess was rubber stamped when he became national weightlifting champion, shortly before he flew to England with his wife 30 years ago.
"The thing that amazed me when I arrived were the gyms," he said. "I had never seen anything like it before. It was a different world."
Keen to stay in shape, he joined a fitness centre in his new hometown of Leicester.
"There, I would just lift 100 kilos weights like the stones in India. People would stare at me and say: ‘what the hell is he doing?'."
The turning point came in 1986 when a friend gave him a copy of the Guinness Book of Records. "My first official record was on the BBC programme Record Breaker: 124 parallel bar dips!"
Since then, Manjit, 57, has collected a colourful variety of records. He cited many reasons for his being "world champion in strength and human endurance." Among them, his small build (5',7''; 78 kg), meditation and weightlifting.
No doubt he needed all the help he could get when he embarked on his craziest stunt. "I walked 82 miles holding a brick in one hand," he said. "But the Guinness Book called me to say they couldn't make it official because another man in France had done it over 77 miles but with a bigger brick. I was seriously pissed."
And the bitterness hasn't gone away. "All the Guinness people do is make money on the backs of people who break these records. I have never received anything from them."
However, the Ironman is keen to give something back with the money made from his stunts. "I am establishing an academy in India, a sort of hall-of-fame to encourage youngsters to take up sports," he said.
His fans will be happy to know the Ironman has no intention of retiring into his self-built hall of fame quite yet. He has even set his sights on new records. "My next big test: pulling a car with my eyelids."
Check out his website.
