A Guinness World Record for the longest kiss underwater has been broken by a freediving couple who wanted to “inspire others to fall in love” with the ocean.

The four minutes and six seconds smooch between 40-year-old Beth Neale, from South Africa, and her 33-year-old fiance Miles Cloutier, from Canada, was achieved in the Maldives on February 4.

The previous record of three minutes 24 seconds, which was held by Michele Fucarino and Elisa Lazzaina, was broken after 13 years.

The record-breaking pair met five years ago through their love of ocean conservation, with Ms Neale teaching on this topic, as well as free-diving, and Mr Cloutier volunteering for the programme.

Ms Neale said that she wanted to take on the challenge to “inspire others” to share the couple’s love of all things underwater.

“Through sharing our underwater love story, we hope to inspire others to fall in love with the magic and wonder of the underwater world”, Ms Neale said.

“You protect what you love and the oceans need all the love we can give to safeguard them for future generations to come.”

The duo travelled to the Maldives with their toddler, Neve, for the attempt – and took part in practice sessions in the open sea for three days.

Despite Ms Neale being a four-times freediving champion and Mr Cloutier an experienced free diver, they referred to the attempt as being “incredibly challenging”.

“We had to be completely relaxed and confident, even when our bodies were experiencing something else,” Mr Cloutier said.

At around three minutes, Eminem fan Ms Neale – who has regularly gone viral on Instagram for lip-syncing to the rapper underwater – put on his hit Lose Yourself to get through the final minute.

Craig Glenday, editor in chief of Guinness World Records (GWR), said: “Beth and Miles’ incredible underwater feat leaves me breathless. What an incredible testament to love – an epic achievement helping to celebrate and protect our beautiful oceans. Congratulations to the happy couple – you are both Officially Amazing.”

The pair were given an official GWR certificate by adjudicator Swapnil Dangarikar and cheered on by holidaymakers. (Daily Echo)

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As couples around the world celebrate Valentine’s Day and wish their other half a happy Valentine’s Day, cricket fans were perplexed when veteran Sri Lankan umpire Kumar Dharmasena posted a photo on Facebook with Sourav Ganguly and Ramiz Raja.

While Dharamsena is known to be a regular user of social media and often posts pictures from both on- and off field moments, it was the caption of the post that caught the eye of fans. ‘Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you’ wrote Dharmasena alongside a picture with both Ganguly and Raja. The post immediately went viral on social media and left fans in splits.

Dharmasena, Ganguly, and Raja are currently in Dubai for a meeting of the MCC Cricket Committee. A few hours before his Valentine’s Day post, Dharamsena had posed a picture of the entire 6-man committee, which featured Ganguly, Raja, and also ex-Australian coach, and former opener Justin Langer.

When it comes to Dharamsena, he is one of the most well-known umpires in the world, and he is known to officiate the most important games.He was the on-field umpire in the famous 2019 Cricket World Cup final between England and New Zealand as well as the 2022 T20 World Cup final between Pakistan and England. He was the reserve umpire for the 2021 T20 World Cup summit clash, in which Australia defeated New Zealand.

In fact, Dharamsena holds the unique feat of being the only person who has both played and umpired in a Cricket World Cup final. Apart from being one of the two on-field umpires in the 2019 final, he was part of the Sri Lankan team that defeated Australia in the 1996 Cricket World Cup final in Lahore.

Dharamsena played a total of 31 tests and 141 ODIs for Sri Lanka, in which he took 69 and 138 wickets, respectively. (Times Now)

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The Sri Lanka Police has requested parents to remain vigilant of the whereabouts of their children, especially minors, due to illegal activities planned for valentines day targeting such children. 

Police spokesman SSP Nihal Thalduwa told the media today that several events are being organized targeting minors, especially via social media. 

Stating that there are no prohibitions on organizing events to commemorate special days, he said, however, raids will be conducted on parties organized via social media. 

SSP Thalduwa said that the raids will be conducted to ensure that the parties do not contain the use of narcotics and the involvement of minors.

He added that this was a preventive measure taken by the Police as there have been repeated occurrences of such events in the past. (NewsWire)

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