New York: Pushing a running electric lawnmower for 71 metres is not a difficult thing to do, but try doing that distance not pushing it, but by balancing the machine on your chin.

New Yorker Ashrita Furman broke, by more than 50 metres, his existing Guinness World Record for “the farthest distance walked balancing a powered lawnmower on the chin.”

When he finally lowered the grass-cutter to the pavement, Furman had travelled 71.53 metres, easily besting his previous and still-existing record of 20 metres.

“I pushed beyond what I had done before by a lot and I’m very, very happy,” Furman said on Thursday.

Although he made it look easy, Furman said he was constantly battling the elements.

“Wind is really your enemy in this kind of balancing, and I had a couple of gusts of wind where the lawnmower felt it was going to spin off,” he said.