Sweeping their way to world record success

FREDERICTON -

It all started with a Guinness World Book of Records sign in the Capital Winter Curling Club. Thirty-nine years later, members are trying to regain their marathon record.

Their goal is 120 hours.

"Steve (Burns) and I we were practising and we just happened to look, there's nobody else on the ice yet and I said 'man, we could do something like that' and so sure enough like every idea we've had, we thought for a very short second and said 'yeah good idea lets do it,'" said Chris Schnare.

The previous Guinness World Record is 105 hours, 6 minutes, and 51 seconds held by a group in Ontario.

For the group at the Capital Winter Curling Club, their clock started at 9:02 Monday morning.

"We're anticipating on being done Saturday morning around nine, and we may be going a little longer than that basically until all bodies drop," said Stephen Muzzerall.

Beating the record meant a lot of logistics, and it's going to mean a lot of ice time.

"It's a lot of work," said Jaime Watson, the Capital Winter Club Manager. "Guinness has very strict rules that they need to have set, so it's been a lot of back and fourth just trying to make sure that we have everything that we need from them."

The event was meticulously planned by the 10 players. Nine of them must always be on the ice until they reach their 120-hour goal on Saturday; they will rotate two-hour breaks to sleep for every eight hours played.

It's not only for the record, it's about having fun, and raising funds.

"We selected our team honestly based on, not curling prowess, based on how we're going to feel two, three, four days in, and who is going to be a good addition to a group that might need people to bring each other up." said Schnare.

They're hoping to raise $1,000 for every hour they're on the ice and they've already raised more than $50,000.

"I've done a few of these kind of crazy events and we always try to do something for charity," said Steven Burns. "Everybody on the team either has kids or people that have kids or youth that are struggling and we just thought that would be a great place to put the money anybody that does have kids in the area know there are a lot of youth right now that are struggling."

The money raised will go towards Family Enrichment Centre counselling and mental health initiatives in the capital city's high schools.