Contender for World's Tallest Man
A 2.4-meter-tall young Chinese man plans to contest the Guinness World Record for World's Tallest Man just as soon as he stops growing.
23-year-old Zhao Liang is a communications company employee in northeastern China's Jilin province. He weighs 115 kilograms and says he's naturally tall.
A local website on Sunday reported Zhao Liang plans to challenge the World's Tallest Man for his title as soon as his height stabilizes. The current title holder, Bao Xishun, is 2.36 meters tall and hails from China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
Zhao Liang was born in a village in Henan province in central China. He says he was 1.9 meters tall when he was 17. By the time he was 19, he had grown to 2.02 meters. He was selected to attend a provincial sports school and play basketball the same year but injuries later forced him to drop a promising future on the court.
The young giant's extraordinary height is often very inconvenient. He finds it hard to find appropriate shoes and clothes. Even his bed had to be specially made by a carpenter.
Height seems to run in his generation of his family, as Zhao Liang is the oldest in a family of tall children. His sister is 1.8 meters tall and brother is 1.85 meters. Despite the height of their offspring, Zhao Liang's parents are not particularly tall. His mother measures less than 1.7 meters and his father is less than 1.8 meters
