Thai couple smooch to a new world record

2013-02-15 13:01

Thai couples kiss during a competition for the "World's Longest Continous Kiss" ahead of Valentine’s Day in Pattaya. Nine couples took part in the kissing marathon. (Pornchai kittiwongsakul, AFP)

Bangkok - A kiss lasting nearly two-and-a-half days propelled one determined Thai couple to a new record for the world's longest smooch on Valentine's Day, organisers said on Friday.

Hospital security guard Ekkachai Tiranarat, aged 44, and 33-year-old housewife Laksana locked lips for 58hrs, 35min and 58sec, smashing last year's Guinness World Record by more than eight hours.

The romance of the clinch may have been marred by competition rules requiring contestants to remain on their feet throughout, slurp food and liquids through a straw and even go to the toilet while continuing to press their lips together.

"They were very exhausted because they did not sleep for two-and-a-half days, they had to stand all the time so they were very weak," Sompron Naksuetrong, vice president of event organiser Ripley's Believe It or Not!, told AFP.

The "kissathon" ended shortly before midnight on Valentine's Day, with the male couple who won last year unable to maintain their smooch, collapsing just two minutes before Ekkachai and Laksana.

The pair won $3 300 cash and two diamond rings.

Organisers said they did not plan to hold another competition next year after three straight years of bettering the record in Thailand and will wait for a challenge in another country.

- AFP