Mysuru: There was palpable excitement in the air at the historic Mysuru Palace premises this morning, as thousands of students, freeing their arms and limbs, gathered for rehearsal to create the ‘Longest Chain Yoga’ record.

The District Administration was pleasantly surprised to see the sea of young students right from sixth standard to PUC gathered. They had expected about  5,000 students and kept an extra 1,000 students as buffer. But to see nearly 9,000 for the rehearsal itself swelled their hearts.

The students, from 33 schools and colleges including eight government schools and colleges, started arriving at the venue by 8 am. It took quite some time for yoga instructors to arrange them in a line of 50 in concentric circles. They then started performing  four types of asanas—Veerabhadrasana 1, Thrikonasana, Veerabhadrasana 2 and Prasantha Padottanasana. It took two-and-a-half minutes to three minutes to complete and the rehearsal was done three times.

Each student had to stretch his or her right leg and then lock it with the left leg of the student standing next to him/her practise the postures perfectly by staying in the position for 30 seconds. Instructions were given by yoga guru Gururaj and city’s international yoga champ H. Kushi  demonstrated the asanas.

The District Administration is making all efforts to break the longest Chain Yoga record set by the Vidyashala in Perambudur, Tamil Nadu in 2014 with 3,854 students participating.

MLA Somashekar inaugurated the rehearsal by chanting Omkara.

DC Randeep said that the District Administration is making all efforts to create a Guinness World Record on International Day of Yoga (IDY) on June 21 as well as the ‘Longest Chain Yoga’ record on June 19. “The participation in today’s rehearsal is overwhelming and the same enthusiasm should be shown tomorrow for the rehearsal at the Mysore Race Club for the rehearsal for IDY.

There will be two extra gates installed at the MRC (this will be apart from the five gates already in place) to regulate the flow of the yoga performers to enter the venue easily. “Bar coded tickets will be issued as also physical tickets will be given to the participants. The gates will be opened at 5.30 am and to avoid the rush, participants are requested to gather as early as possible,” said Tourism Department Deputy Director H.P. Janardhan, speaking to Star of Mysore.

There will be 1,000 volunteers from NCC functioning as stewards, who will be in charge of 50 yoga performers.

Former Minister S.A. Ramdas, District Ayush officer Dr Seethalakshmi, University of Mysore Registrar D. Bharathi, Nehru Yuva Kendra Convenor M.N. Nataraj, Mysore Travel Association President B.S. Prashanth, GSS Foundation’s D. Srihari, Palace Board Deputy Director T.S. Subramanya, Guinness World Record advisor Shailaja Srinath were present.