21-year-old Singaporean speedcuber Daryl Tan Hong An currently holds 12 Guinness World Records titles, which is more than any other cuber on Earth.
His best single-solve time in competition is 5.88 seconds, meaning he’s not the world’s fastest speedcuber (that accolade presently belongs to Max Park), however, Daryl may be the most athletic.
He’s able to solve cubes while performing all manner of activities, such as sprinting, juggling, hanging upside down, riding a hoverboard, and being submerged underwater.
So far this year, he’s set five world records:
- Fastest 100 metres solving a rotating puzzle cube – 13.61 seconds
- Fastest time to solve a rotating puzzle cube on a hoverboard – 9.37 seconds
- Fastest time to solve a rotating puzzle cube underwater – 9.29 seconds
- Fastest time to solve a rotating puzzle cube while controlling a ping pong ball – 15.84 seconds
- Fastest time to solve a rotating puzzle cube whilst juggling – 13.03 seconds
Daryl received his first cube when he was eight years old, but it wasn’t until three years later that he learned to solve it.
After honing his ability through hours and hours of practise, he became able to solve the cube in under 30 seconds.
He entered his first competition in 2014, aged 12. Although he didn’t rank very highly, the experience was invaluable to Daryl. Over the following years, he continued practising, improving, and competing.
It wasn’t until 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic put a stop to all events, that Daryl decided to use his speedcubing skills to achieve a Guinness World Records title.
He broke the record for the fastest time to solve a rotating puzzle cube whilst juggling with a time of 17.16 seconds, shaving over five seconds off fellow Singaporean Teo Kai Xiang’s record time set in 2015.
Like many other serial record breakers, once Daryl achieved his first record, he was hooked.
He found seven more records to attempt, and after much practise and preparation, he incredibly broke them all in one day!
On 18 April 2021, Daryl achieved the following records:
- Fastest time to solve a 4×4×4 rotating puzzle cube upside down – 37.25 seconds
- Fastest time to solve two rotating puzzle cubes simultaneously whilst suspended upside down – 56.61 seconds
- Fastest time to solve a rotating puzzle cube one-handed whilst suspended upside down – 17.12 seconds
- Most rotating puzzle cubes solved one-handed underwater – 8
- Most rotating puzzle cubes solved underwater – 16
- Most rotating puzzle tetrahedrons solved underwater – 15
- Most 2x2x2 rotating puzzle cubes solved underwater – 26
Daryl trained breath holding for two months to prepare for the underwater record attempts, where he was anchored to the bottom of a pool by 12-kg (26.4-lb) weights.
Daryl now works on weekends as a speedcubing coach, putting his wealth of experience to good use to teach children (and even some adults) how to cube like him.
He says he wants to continue breaking records to “advocate cubing to the locals in Singapore” and to “inspire children to put down the phones and gaming gadgets […] and pick up the 3D puzzle and challenge their minds.”
Breaking world records and breaking boundaries is my forte. - Daryl
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