Mohammed al Sheikh is only 12 and feels trapped in Gaza but he dreams of a Guinness world record for a series of stunning backflips and his almost unbelievable body contortions.
Mohammed, just 1.37 metres (four foot, six inches) tall and weighing 29 kilograms (64 pounds), can bend his body in seemingly impossible ways, throwing his feet over his shoulders with reckless abandon or jumping into a spider-like pose.
His antics earned this young Palestinian from the Gaza Strip the nickname of “Spiderman,” a mantle which fills him with pride.
Mohammed found fame just after a devastating war in Gaza with Israel that left over 2,000 Palestinians dead in 2014.
Despite the 50-day conflict interrupting his training, he appeared on the TV show ‘Arabs Got Talent’ in Lebanon, where his body-bending act won 14 million votes.
Though he didn’t win, he now hopes to writhe his way into the Guinness Book of Records from his home in the Tel al-Hawa area of southern Gaza City.
Mohammed can perform four acrobatic moves better than anyone else on earth, his coach Mohammed Lubbad, 26, insists.
In an email seen by AFP, Guinness accepted his bid for a record entitled: “Most full body revolutions maintaining a chest stand in one minute.”
In the video submitted as evidence, Mohammed lies on the floor with his chest pressed into the ground.
His legs then spin around at 360 degrees — his feet touching the ground at every angle in a feat of amazing dexterity.
An ‘extraordinary gift’
He achieves it 33 times in a minute, four more than the current record of 29, raising hopes he will be crowned in the coming weeks.
For his mother Hanan, he is already a “world champion”, but now he must “show his extraordinary gift and exceptional strength in world competitions”.
All images sourced from AFP