Pictures courtesy Robert Vogels/Handboogsport.
The record has recently been officially recognised by the Guinness World Records as the longest archery marathon.
Van Eekeren shot a total of 20,638 points for 2430 during the 30-hour-16-minute session in Almere, Netherlands on 14 August 2015. He shot at a 40cm target face over 18 metres with his recurve bow.
Following the record try, he had to submit video files, scoresheets and testimonies in evidence of the achievement. Guinness World Records receives over 60,000 applications each year, he said, and the paperwork was difficult, which is why it took a while for the archery marathon to be recognised.
Now the record’s been ratified, van Eekeren is already training for a second try, to attempt to lift the record to over 40 hours.
“It may sound like madness, but for me it is not,” he told Almere van Daag. “I look at it differently because I enjoy the sport too much. Organising a record attempt takes such a lot of work, otherwise I would do it again next week.”
The marathons raise money for the Oppkikker Foundation, which supports ill children and their families.
