Ride of his life! Russian man spends over 52 HOURS on a Ferris wheel... without sleeping a wink

• Eugeniy Zakharov, aged 30, set a new world Ferris wheel riding record
• He stayed on the ride in Yekaterinburg for 52 hours and 30 minutes
• The former 48-hour record was held by Clinton Shephard in Chicago

By Katie Amey for MailOnline

Published: 07:28 EST, 7 July 2015 | Updated: 07:42 EST, 7 July 2015

A Russian man has set a world record for riding non-stop on a Ferris wheel after staying on board for over 52 hours.

Eugeniy Zakharov, aged 30, came up with the idea of setting the world record after reading that an American man called Clinton Shepard had managed to spend 48 hours 8 minutes and 25 seconds on a Ferris wheel in Chicago.

And 52 hours and 30 minutes later, he had achieved his goal.

Russian man sets record for longest time on ferris wheel

Russian man has set a world record for riding non-stop on a Ferris wheel, staying on board for over 52 hours

'I thought to myself, "I can do that,"' he said.

'In addition I wanted to do something for our city of Yekaterinburg which only seems to be in the news for the wrong reasons.'

As an event manager often organising things for the city, he said he was well aware of its many attractions and wanted to get the message to a wider audience. 

'The media are happy to write about some drunk guy shooting another, or people having punch-ups on planes, but what about the positive things,' he added.

'We have a fantastic Ferris wheel here, and I decided that to put the focus on that and on the city. It would be great to try and beat this record.'

Zakharov was inspired by an American who had set the previous record in Chicago at 48 hours 

Eugeniy Zakharov, aged 30, is an event manager for Yekaterinburg and wanted to promote the town

The city has a great Ferris wheel, so Zakharov decided he showcase that attraction to the world

He spent a total of 52 hours and 30 minutes on board - the only rule was that he wasn't allowed to sleep

He spent in total 52 hours and 30 minutes on the Ferris wheel with the only rule being that he was not allowed to sleep.

In order to stay awake, he invited local people in to meet him and he also installed a laptop computer to help pass the time. 

He said: 'The cabin of the Ferris wheel was equipped with air conditioning, a Wi-Fi connection and had really comfortable seats.'

The whole experiment was broadcast in real time so that people could follow the record-breaking attempt

In order to  help him stay awake, he invited local people on board and also installed a laptop to pass time

Depending on how many people got on and off each time, a revolution could take between 4 and 12 minutes

Although Zakharov was technically allowed to leave the booth for five minutes each hour, he rarely did

The whole experiment was broadcast in real time so people could follow the record-breaking attempt, and although he was technically allowed to leave the booth for five minutes every hour, he only took the opportunity to do so seven times.

Depending on stops to let people on and off, it took between four and 12 minutes to make a single revolution on the wheel, managing to turn round a total of 470 times with Eugeniy on board before he finally decided he had gone on long enough. 

He added: 'I could have gone a lot longer, but I wanted to give Shepard the chance to get revenge. However I have to say he will need to be prepared to spend 72 hours in a Ferris will if he really wants to give me a challenge.' 

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