Wang Feng Breaks Records at 20th Annual World Memory Championship in China

www.worldmemorychampionship.com/

"I have spent three months preparing for this championship. And each day I spend five to six hours practicing. Actually, each year, I spend two to three months to prepare for competitions," said Feng. Over three days, more than 120 competitors aged nine to 74, participated in ten separate memory disciplines, testing speed and endurance. Among the challenges, competitors memorized 30 packs of playing cards in an hour, 3500 binary numbers, 400 numbers spoken at one second intervals, put over 90 names to faces in fifteen minutes and memorized a single pack of cards in under 30 seconds. Competitors from 20 countries took part in the competition with many of them having to win national heats to take part in the world finals. One 16-year-old schoolgirl from India, who won the 'faces and names' category, read about the championships two years ago in a local paper and decided to enter. "And then I participated, I took a workshop for four days and then I participated in the national memory championships, I came sixth. Last year I participated in the World Memory Championships, I got a gold medal again here last year in the names and faces event, juniors. And this year I got it in open." Eight times world memory champion, Dominic O'Brien, who entered and won the first competition in 1991, said the competition gets stiffer every year. "I think it's made me more creative, it's opened up my brain, it's given me more self-belief, something I never had when I was at school. I was diagnosed with dyslexia, I failed most of my exams, I couldn't concentrate. And that's one thing you really need to be able to do. You need to have a good memory to win this, you also need to be able to concentrate, so there are so many benefits once you start exploring your imagination, your creativity," said O'Brian. He said that a good imagination was the key to success and said he was testament to the fact that anyone could become a memory champion.

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