A world record 48 hours of non-stop padel

For two and a half days, Greg Gogoski didn’t sleep. By the final hours, the man who had worked in the padel industry for three years was so exhausted that he had to remind himself how the game worked. 

Yet, at 16:00 on Sunday 23 August, Gogoski and three others completed 48 consecutive hours of padel, breaking the Guinness World Record of roughly 41 hours. Setting the new record with him were Lara Anderson, Warren Kuhn, and Farhaan “Fudgie” Sayanwala. 

For Gogoski – a former King David pupil who literally works, lives, and plays padel, being an operations manager for a padel company – the challenge was to discover how far they could push themselves. 

“From the beginning, it was always to see how far we could push ourselves and to see how much stronger the mind is than the body,” he said. “We knew it would mainly be a mental challenge.” 

As plans developed, the four decided their attempt should stand for something beyond breaking a record. They used it to raise funds and awareness for the South African Depression and Anxiety Group in memory of Muhammad “Mo” Abba, a regular at 10by20 KCC Padel Club who had died after battling depression. “He would play almost every night at our club,” Gogoski said. “He was a young guy, a good-looking guy, and unfortunately lost the battle with depression.” 

The public fundraiser brought in more than R11 000 from the padel community, in addition to a number of private donations. 

On preparing for 48 hours of continuous padel, Gogoski said, “It’s very hard to train for as any long stint requires quite a lot of rest and recovery afterwards. The team therefore trained strategically, completing eight- and 12-hour stints.” 

Yet, they knew there was no real way to prepare for what would happen beyond a full day without sleep. “It was nerve-racking because we knew we were going into almost uncharted waters when we got to the 24-hour-plus mark,” he said. 

Once the attempt began on Friday 21 August, the scale of what they were attempting became apparent. Under the rules, the players were allowed just five minutes of rest for every hour played. Those minutes could be banked and accumulated, but otherwise they had to keep playing. 

Fatigue began setting in from about 12 hours, accompanied by muscle spasms, foot cramps, tennis elbow, blisters, wrist pain, and exhaustion. For Gogoski, the hardest part was sleep deprivation. “I’ve been telling people afterwards that it was the best and the worst experience of my life,” he said. “It was a lot harder than I think we all thought it was going to be. Hard on the body, hard on the mind.” 

Sunday morning brought the lowest point. Having started on Friday afternoon, they had been playing for well over a day when, between about 04:00 and 10:00, the drowsiness became particularly intense. 

“The team definitely went through a few rough patches,” Gogoski said. “Sunday morning was the hardest part. I knew we were all going to get over the line, but definitely some doubts started to creep in.” 

Eventually, they reached the roughly 41-hour mark and matched the world record. But instead of slowing down, the significance of every additional minute became motivation to keep going. “We knew every minute we completed now becomes a harder challenge for someone to break,” Gogoski said. “It really was just pushing as hard as possible to protect the record.” 

By the final couple of hours, sleep deprivation had taken its toll. “To be honest, I kind of lost my marbles,” Gogoski said. “I had to remind myself how the game of padel works, how it scores, and this is someone who’s been in the padel industry for three years.” 

At that point, there was little thought of strategy. “I was just trying to hit the ball over the net.” 

Finally, at 16:00 on Sunday, the four reached 48 hours. “When 48 hours crossed, it was more relief than anything that I could go and rest my brain,” Gogoski said. “I was super happy that the team got over the line.” 

What began as an attempt to test the limits of their mental and physical endurance had ended seven hours beyond the previous record, while raising money and awareness for a cause close to their padel community.