Grandpa breaks 103rd world record by balancing giant globe on his head

By Adam Dutton and Gay Bolton via SWNS

A super-strong granddad has celebrated his 103rd world record by balancing a giant globe filled with bricks on his head - just days before his 76th birthday.

Strongman John Evans has been wowing crowds with his death-defying act as a professional head balancer for more than four decades.

He has raised more than £250,000 for charity carrying a variety of heavy objects on his bonce despite being blind in one eye, diabetic and suffering from angina.

Last year, he was able to break his 100-record milestone when he balanced a 14stone (90kg) crown on his head - but vowed to keep on going with his act.

John has now chalked off an incredible 103 records after balancing a 10ft x 6ft globe weighed down with 7 stone of bricks on Monday, March 27.

Grandfather-of-three John, who turns 76 on Friday, March 31, achieved the feat at the Rutland Sports Park Indoor Tennis Centre in his hometown of Ilkeston, Derbys.

He said: “It was a terrific achievement.

"The globe was eight feet tall from my head, the globe itself was weightless but beneath it was seven stone of bricks to give the ballast.

"For the record I needed to walk away from the stand that it was on for three meters and had to balance the globe on my head without the use of my hands for a minimum of ten seconds – I did it for 15 seconds.”

Watching old films showing Greek god Atlas balancing the world on his shoulders inspired John to recreate his own version for the feat.

He plans to carry on racking up the world records but admits he is starting to run out of ideas after 40 years.

He added: “I need to come up with something that has the wow factor that has not been done before."

His previous stunts include a 350lb Mini Cooper, a ladder with a woman sitting on a bike on each end and 101 house bricks, weighing 30 stone (190kg).

For other lifts, he has managed to support 225 pints of beer, 380 toilet rolls, 96 empty milk crates and 400 cans of 7 Up pop.

Over the years, he has been featured on Britain's Got Talent, Children in Need and the the American Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

The 20-stone former builder, who has a 60.9cm neck, first realized he had a talent for balancing heavy objects in the 1960s when he was working as a laborer.

He said: "I have had an amazing career so far, all this from just carrying bricks when I was a bricklayer's laborer when I was 18.

"My neighbors thought I was weird at first but I'm renowned for it now all over the world.

"There is still nobody else in the world at my age that can do what I can do.

"I am certainly not stopping."