Odisha artist's 5-ton sand hockey sculpture gets ‘world’s largest' tag

A sand sculpture - created by eminent sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik in Odisha - has been recognised as the 'world's largest sand hockey stick' by World Records India.

A sand sculpture - created by eminent sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik in Odisha - has been recognised as the 'world's largest sand hockey stick' by World Records India. On January 11, Pattnaik had created the 105-foot-long sculpture with 5,000 hockey balls and five tonnes of sand on the banks of the Mahanadi River in Cuttack where the curtain raiser for men's Hockey World Cup was held.

Odisha: Sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik creates a '105 feet Hockey stick with 5000 Hockey ball' sand sculpture near Barabati Stadium in Mahanadi, Cuttack (PTI)

“Padma Shri Sudarsan Pattnaik - a Sculptor and Sand Artist installed the World’s Largest Hockey Stick measuring a total of 105 ft long including the installation of 5000 hockey balls and was exhibited at Mahanadi River Bank, Cuttack, Odisha, and set a New World Record on 10th January 2023. The record was adjudicated by Sanjay Narvekar & Sushma Narvekar – Special Adjudicator,” the World Records of India stated.

Pattnaik on Tuesday shared a picture of the certificate from the non-profit organization on Twitter and said, “Our largest sand hockey stick set a New World Record, which was 105 ft long with the installation of 5000 #hockey balls. This was created for the opening ceremony of the Men’s Hockey WorldCup. Honour for us to get this recognition from World Records India Organisation.”

Pattnaik had completed the sculpture in just two days with the help of a team of 15 students.

Explaining the significance of the sculpture, the sand artist had said that while the previous world cup's artwork “depicted the major monuments of Odisha”, “This time we have used the installation to welcome all the 16 participating teams to Odisha and we have created 16 national flags in the installation," he said.

World Records India (WRI) is a First World Record Organization in India managed by Genius Foundation a Non-Profit Registered Charitable Trust – under the Indian Registration Act, as per its website. It has "certified more than 3500+ Indian world records with 15,00,000 World Record Holder Globally in the past 10 years," it further says.