A SEVEN-YEAR-OLD Woking boy has broken a world record by recognising the flags of all the world’s 195 countries and naming their capital cities, currencies and continents, all in less than nine minutes.
In a feat that would stump most adults, Ayush Abilash completed the task in 8 minutes, 22 seconds to earn a place in the India-based OMG Book of Records.
Ayush was born in St Peter’s Hospital after his parents settled in Woking after they moved to Britain from India 11 years ago.
They gave him a flag chart when he was two to help him to recognise colours.
His father, Abilash, said Ayush has always had a very good memory.
“He goes to Barnsbury Primary School and is doing very well,” Abilash said.
“The teachers are very excited about him.”
Ayush told the News & Mail that he likes the colours of flags.
“I found it not too difficult, but some flags were a little bit more difficult to remember than others,” he said.
“The hardest ones to remember were Indonesia, Monaco, Ireland, Ivory Coast, Chad and Romania. I know all the capital cities, currencies and continents.
“I was really pleased when I won the record.”
He has said he might want to become a nurse like both his parents. His mother, Anjana, works at Woking Community Hospital while Abilash works in the operating theatres at Heatherwood Hospital in Ascot.
“But it changes: sometimes he wants to be a doctor or a scientist,” Abilash said.
Ayush’s flag knowledge has been helped by being taken to visit six different countries in his young life and he is busy passing it on to his two and-a-half-year-old sister Aadhya.
Ayush’s parents entered him into the world record attempt after they saw a girl in Cardiff breaking another record to get into the OMG book. He completed the task in a live video recording.
“We approached them because we knew Ayush is good with the flags,” Abilash said.
Anjana said she and Abilash are “super proud” of their son.
“We always knew there is something special in him. “But he never ceases to surprise us with new things every time,” she said.