SINDANGAN, Philippines (AP) — A poor Filipino blacksmith's son who stands less than 2 feet (60 centimeters) tall was declared the world's shortest man by Guinness World Records on his 18th birthday Sunday, sparking a celebration in his hometown.
The title was bestowed on Junrey Balawing in Sindangan in the southern Philippines, with his parents, villagers and officials showering the coastal town's newly famous resident with a feast of roasted pigs and seafood, cake, balloons and cash gifts.
Balawing measured 23.5 inches (60 centimeters) during the ceremony attended by about 100 villagers and journalists at the town hall. Guinness World Records representative Craig Glenday presented Balawing with official recognition of his status as the shortest adult man in the world, with the framed certificate nearly reaching the ears of the standing recipient.
PHOTOS:
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Chandra Bahadur Dangi
In a picture taken on February 9, 2012, Chandra Bahadur Dangi, a 72-year-old Nepali who claims to be the world's shortest man at 56 centimetres (22 inches) in height, shows his citezenship card in Reemkholi village, Dang district, some 540 kilometres southwest of Kathamandu. Pilloried by neighbours, laughed at in freakshows and spurned by the women he admired from afar, Chandra Bahadur Dangi has always seen his tiny stature as a curse. But the 72-year-old Nepali, who claims to stand at just 22 inches, is on the brink of life change as significant as a lottery win as experts prepare to test his claim to be the shortest man in history.
World's Shortest Woman
Guinness World Records Adjudicator Rob Molloy (R) and doctor Manoj Pahukar (2nd L) measure Jyoti Amge (C), 18, during a news conference in Nagpur on Dec. 16, 2011. Amge was officially announced by the Guinness World Records on December 16 the world's "shortest woman living (mobile)" measured as 62.8cm (24.7 inches) and will take the title from US woman Bridgette Jordan, previously held the record at 69.5 cm (27.4 in).
Junrey Balawing
Junrey Balawing was measured at about 24 inches (61 centimeters) from head to foot lying down and slightly above 23 inches (58 centimeters) standing up.
World's Shortest Man
World's Shortest Man
Guinness World Records Editor-In-Chief Craig Glenday meets with Junrey Balawig just before the teen's 18th birthday, to prepare to name him the shortest man in the world.
World's Shortest Man
To verify Balawig's height, Guinness will measure him both standing and lying flat over the course of 24 hours, with a final result calculated from an average of the three measurements.
Khagendra Thapa Magar
Balawig assumes the Guinness title from Nepal's Khagendra Thapa Magar, who measures 26.4 inches. Balawig is expected to be named the shortest man ever measured by Guinness.
Balawing, who wore a white shirt emblazoned with the Guinness seal, took over the title from Khagendra Thapa Magar of Nepal, who is 26.4 inches (67 centimeters) tall, Glenday said.
Dozens of journalists descended on Sindangan, a fishing and farming town of 90,000 located about 450 miles (730 kilometers) south of Manila, to cover the event.
"Thank you," Balawing told the crowd in a local dialect which was translated by his father, Reynaldo. Balawing tried repeatedly before managing to blow out the candles on the cake and clapped heartily each time the crowd applauded. He was later heard saying "Kapoy," or "I'm tired."
Balawing – who is about the size of a toddler and has a child's demeanor – needs to hold onto something to stand because of weak knees. He was photographed propping himself up with empty Coca-Cola bottles, which were taller than his waistline.
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Balawing's mother grew teary-eyed during the ceremony, saying she was happy with her son's instant fame.
Glenday said he was struck by Balawing's lively personality and constant smile.
"Although he's short, he takes that in stride," Glenday told The Associated Press. "He has this cheeky smile."
Aside from the Guinness certificate, the crown does not come with any cash award. Glenday said he hopes the international fame will bring in gifts and donations, particularly medical supplies to ensure Balawing's health.
Nobody could explain why Balawing stopped growing two months after his birth, his father said, adding that he first walked with help from his parents when he was 5 years old.
Sindangan Vice Mayor Bess Jagonio, a doctor, speculated that he may have had an endocrine or a birth-related defect.
Balawing's brother and two sisters are all average size.
His family said they tried to send Balawing to school but withdrew him after he distracted other children's attention.
Local officials got the idea of informing the Guinness records committee about Balawing from journalists who learned about his size.
TALLEST MEN:
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At 8 feet, 3 inch tall, Sultan Kosen was declared the world's tallest living man in 2009 after another candidate, Ukrainian Leonid Stadnyk, refused to be measured.
World's Tallest Man Poses Next To World's Tallest Man
The world's tallest man, Sultan Kosen of Turkey, measuring 8-feet, 3 inches tall, right, poses next to a figure of the tallest man in history, Robert Wadlow of the U.S., after a promotional event in Hong Kong.
With the Guinness certification of Kösen, Bao Xishun is now considered the world's second tallest living man. The 7-foot, 9-inch herdsman from Inner Mongolia, China, married in 2007, and became the world's biggest daddy a year later.
At 8 feet, 11 inches tall, Robert Wadlow of Alton, Ill., is the tallest man ever to be measured. Doctors attributed his growth to abnormalities in his pituitary gland. He was still growing in 1940 when he died of an infection, caused by a blister. He was only 22 years old.
At 7-foot-6, Houston Rockets star Yao Ming is the tallest player in the NBA and one of the best-known athletes in the world.
Trijntje Keever of the Netherlands is the tallest woman in history, standing at 8 feet, 4 inches, at the time of her death in 1633. She was 17 years old and suffered from cancer.
At 7 feet, 7 inches, Sandy Allen was the tallest woman in the world at the time of her death in 2008. Throughout her life she declined to star in sideshows, but did appear in the Academy Award-winning 'Fellini's Casanova.'
Yao Defen of China has been reported to be nearly 7-foot-9, but has never been certified by Guinness. She has declined to be measured in recent years because of her health. She was injured in a fall in 2009, and was left temporarily unable to stand.
ANATOMICAL WONDERS:
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Chandra Wisnu: The Bubble Skin Man
Chandra Wisnu is a married father of four living in Indonesia afflicted by an extreme case of <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/19/chandra-wisnu-the-bubble-_n_1609254.html" target="_blank">Neurofibromatosis type I (NF-1), a tumor disorder that is caused by a gene malfunction and causes non-cancerous lumps.</a> The disease is genetic and affects up to one in 2500 people.
Ricky Naputi
Ricky Naputi is so overweight that he cannot move his body without gasping for air. He lives on the beautiful island of Guam, but is unable to frequent the beaches because island transportation cannot support his size.
My Giant Face Tumor
Ed, the star of a TLC special, "My Giant Face Tumor," suffers from Neurofibromatosis, a disorder that causes tumors to grow uncontrollably along nerve shafts. These tumors have completely taken over his face, robbing him of sight, eroding his skull and causing deep emotional scars.
Eye Socket Strength
Yang Guanghe pulls a vehicle with his eye sockets in Anshun, Guizhou Province of China on April 28, 2012. Yang Guanghe dragged a 1.6 ton vehicle successfully.
Chandra Bahadur Dangi
Guinness World Records officials have measured Chandra Bahadur Dangi to confirm his height of 21.5 inches (54.6 centimeters). That makes him not only the world's shortest living man but the world's shortest person ever recorded in Guinness' 57-year history.
Paul Mason
Paul Mason, 50, who weighed 60 stone two years ago, underwent a gastric bypass after he was told he otherwise faced certain death. But he has been left with rolls of unsightly excess skin after the extreme weight loss and now needs an operation to remove the flaps hanging from his stomach, arms and legs. However, NHS bosses have refused to perform cosmetic surgery, insisting that he needs to maintain a stable weight before it can be considered.
Chris "The Dutchess" Walton has entered with Guinness World Records book with record-setting fingernails to 19 feet, 9 inches long.
David Petrovic
David Petrovic, 4, of Serbia is a real-life human magnet. He and his cousin, Luke Lukic, 6, have the medically unexplained ability to attract metallic objects.
Man With 100-Pound Scrotum Can't Afford $1M Surgery
A Las Vegas man with a 100-pound scrotum needs surgery that isn't covered by Nevada Medicaid. Now, he's taking his story to the media.
Donna Simpson
Donna Simpson, of Akron, Ohio, holds the Guinness record for heaviest woman ever to bear children. She won the title by weighing a whopping 532 pounds when she gave birth to her daughter, Jacqueline, in February 2007 -- an event that required 30 doctors.
Pauline Potter
Pauline Potter, a 47-year-old, 643-pound Californian, has earned a spot in the 2012 Guinness World Records 2012 record book as the World's Heaviest Woman.
Susanne Eman
Big model Susanne Eman, a 32-year-old single mother-of-two from Casa Grande, has made it her goal to break the world record for heaviest woman. Currently, she weighs nearly 700 pounds and hopes to tip the scales at 1200 pounds within the next decade.
Eye-Popping Contest Winner 2011
Jalisa Thompson, from Atlantic City, took the top honor and the $500 prize for first place at the Ripley's 15th annual Great Face Off.
Man With 12 Fingers
Yoandri Hernandez Garrido, 37, is known as "Twenty-Four" because he has 12 fingers. Hernandez, who lives in Baracoa, Cuba, is proud of his extra digits because they enable him to make a living by scrambling up palm trees to cut coconuts and posing for photographs with tourists.
Indian woman with two wombs has given birth to two boys
Rinku Devi, 28, with her one-week-old sons (yet to be named) at the Mati Sadan Parijat Nursing Home on August 5, 2011 in Muzaffarpur district of Bihar, India.
An Indian woman with two wombs has given birth to two boys, one from each uterus. Delighted mum Rinku Devi delivered her one-in-fifty-million babies last Friday (29 July) in the northern city of Patna. Stunned doctors said giving birth to healthy babies conceived in different ovaries is so rare an average of one case is reported each year anywhere in the world. The babies, however, are not twins, as they were conceived at different times. According to gynaecologist Dr. Dipti Singh, "Rinku Devi suffers from a rare medical condition known as the uterus didelphys in which the womb develops in two parts, each with its own fallopian tube. It is quite a rare congenital condition and less than 100 women around the world are known to have it." Rinku's condition was not diagnosed until she went into labor, but after a one-hour-long surgery, she gave birth to two little boys weighing 2 kilograms and 1.5 kilograms respectively.
Foot Carpenter Sintayehu Tishale
Carpenter Sintayehu Tishale, 42, hammers in a nail using his feet on July 9, 2011 in his workshop in Welete Suk, on the edge of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Foot Carpenter Sintayehu Tishale
In this photo, Sintayehu Tishale, 42, plugs in his electric drill with his feet on July 9, 2011 in his workshop in Welete Suk, on the edge of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Most Fingers And Toes
Akshat Saxena had 34 fingers and toes at birth in India in 2010. That set a Guinness World Record for most digits, although doctors later amputated many of them in 2011.
Most Fingers And Toes
Akshat Saxena had 34 fingers and toes at birth in India in 2010. That set a Guinness World Record for most digits, although doctors later amputated many of them in 2011.
Most Fingers And Toes
Akshat Saxena had 34 fingers and toes at birth in India in 2010. That set a Guinness World Record for most digits, although doctors later amputated many of them in 2011.
Huge Leg Tumor
Nguyen Duy Hai, 31, of Vietnam suffered from a 176-pound tumor in his leg and has appealed for funds to pay for a surgery to remove it. The tumor has left him unable to walk.
Hairiest Girl in the World
Supatra Sasuphan eats lunch in Ratchabophit school in Bangkok, Thailand on February 28, 2011. After Supatra was named the 'hairiest girl in the world' by Guinness, she says that getting the award has boosted her confidence and she has taken up dancing, singing, and acting. She loves listening to Thai pop music and makes her own dance routines to the latest hits with her friends.
Most Pierced Woman Marries
Elaine Davidson, who holds the record for World's Most Pierced Woman with 6,925 piercings, outside Edinburgh Registry Office following her wedding to an unnamed man.
Larry Gomez: The Wolf Boy
Larry Gomez, better known as "Wolf Boy" at the Venice Beach Freakshow, suffers from Hypertrichosis or "Werewolf Syndrome."
Conjoined Twins
The two-headed conjoined female twin babies in a hospital on May 9, 2011 in Suining city in southwest China's Sichuan province. The twins were born on May 5, 2011 by caesarean. Two previous ultrasound scans in September and February both reported a single embryo to her mother Bao Qiaoying, a migrant worker, until a check on May 3rd found it had two heads. The parents wanted to abort the fetus but it was already too late. The hospital says they are China's first reported two-headed conjoined twin babies, born 4.05kg together.
World's Shortest Woman
Indian Joyti Amge, alleged world's shortest girl with a height of 22.8 inches, poses with her toys on the evening of her 17th birthday on December 15, 2010 in Nagpur.
World's Tallest Man
Sultan Kosen, the world's tallest man, with AOL Weird News editor Buck Wolf. At 8-foot-1, Kosen is the tallest man measured by Guinness World Records in more than two decades.
Tallest and Shortest Men
Sultan Kosen, world's tallest man, meeting the world's shortest man, He Pingping Turkey to celebrate the 15 January opening of the new Guinness World Records Live! Roadshow at Forum Istanbul.
No Bathing Man
Guru Kailash Singh, of India, has refused to bathe for 37 years in the hopes that the gods will bless him with a son after the birth of seven daughters.
This baby with six legs was born in Sukkur, a city in the Sindh Province of Pakistan on Friday, April 13, 2012, according to the National Institute of Child Health.
Lots Of Fingers And Toes
Arpan Saxena, pictured here at 4, has 13 fingers and 12 toes, some of which are fused together.
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First Posted: 06/12/2011 9:35 am Updated: 11/15/2011 5:36 am