Love struck Rubik's Cube champ breaks world record!

Melbourne, July 25 : A teenager has broken the world record for Rubik's Cube, and his good luck charm, he says, is not extra training, mega-dexterity or a new technique, but a girl who distracted him in the tournament. Earlier this month, Erik Akkersdijk, 18, broke the world record for solving a standard 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube in just 7.08 seconds, smashing the previous record of 8.72 seconds.

At the tournament, he met the lady in question.

"I met a very nice girl there who worked at one of the stands at the tournament that sell puzzles, she was quite interested in the cubing tournament and I felt pretty attracted to her. We chatted the whole time," News.com.au quoted him, as saying.

He added: "So instead of waiting nervously for your next solve and over-focussing, I was a bit distracted by something else. The result was no more nerves for the competition."

Akkersdijk had held the record earlier also with a time of 9.77 seconds set in 2007, but he wasn't expecting to break the mark a second time at this month's Czech Open.

"I couldn't really believe it, before the competition it actually looked like I was a bit out of form. Getting the world record back again is unbelievable, after the last record was broken twice I thought I couldn't catch up with the faster guys," said the environmental management student.

He said it is important to have quick hands and a well-lubricated Rubik's Cube for being a champ, but the best cubers are the quickest thinkers.

ANI