Just over a month ago, the Rubik's Cube world record was smashed by Mats Valk, a Dutch speedcuber, during the Jawa Timur Open 2016. Valk was able to shave 0.16 seconds off the previous record of 4.90 seconds, which was a pretty impressive feat.
Yesterday, Valk's record was unbelievably beat by 20-year-old Australian Feliks Zemdegs, who solved the puzzle in 4.737 seconds, just three thousandths of a second faster than Valk's best time.
You can see the look of shock and pure joy on Zemdegs' face, as well as on everyone else's who was in the room to witness the world record happen. In the world of elite speedcubing, being able to shave even a hundredth of a second off someone else's time is a huge deal, especially when records are at stake.
This competition, the POPS Open 2016, held in Park Orchards, Australia, was sponsored by speedcube.com.au and GANCube, sites that sell specially-designed Rubik's Cubes made for speed cubing competitions.
Despite setting the world record during the competition, Zemdegs was not the ultimate winner. That title went to the previous record holder, Valk whose average time on his five attempts was faster than Zemdegs' by 0.06 seconds.
These young men have clearly mastered their craft and we'll see if they can get these times down even faster at the 2017 World Championships in Paris, France in July.
Valk and Zemdegs, along with Lucas Etter (who held the record before Valk), are the very best of the best at what they do, but it's important to remember that, at the end of the day, a robot can still demolish their records.
If you'd like to get into speedcubing, make sure to check out our beginner tutorial and other Rubik's Cube solving guides on WonderHowTo.
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