The World Push Up Championships is an annual pushup tournament held in Wellington

Wellington

Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...

, New Zealand. The championships include separate mens and ladies competition. Male competitors are judged on the number of push-ups they can complete in a one minute period. The time limit in the ladies competition is 45 seconds.

Origin

The inaugural World Push Up Championships were held in the Establishment Bar, Courtenay Place, Wellington

Courtenay Place, Wellington

Courtenay Place is the main street of the Courtenay Quarter in the Wellington, New Zealand inner-city district of Te Aro.Courtenay Place is known for its entertainment and nightlife. Many restaurants are open late and most of the bars stay open until dawn...

 on Saturday, March 28, 2009. Originally envisaged as a fund raiser for the Wellington/Hutt Valley GAA

Gaelic Athletic Association

The Gaelic Athletic Association is an amateur Irish and international cultural and sporting organisation focused primarily on promoting Gaelic games, which include the traditional Irish sports of hurling, camogie, Gaelic football, handball and rounders...

 club, the event became an entity in its own right (while still raising money for the Wellington/Hutt Valley GAA club). Early contestants Daithí "Dizzle" O'Connor and Callum "Tick Tock" Thomas helped raise an early profile for the competition by posting challenges on youtube

YouTube

YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....

. The event was further publicised in the Wellington region through a morning television apparence, radio slots, national media and regional event guides. The multimedia marketing assault was completed by a facebook

Facebook

Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...

page, a dedicated website and by word of mouth.

Judging

A push-up was declared to be valid if the contestant pressed their body down on a judges fist and pushed up until their elbows locked. A two man judging team counted the push-ups. The first was the judge with his fist on the mat, he/she counted the number of times the contestant pressed down on his/her fist giving the contestant a "raw score". The second judge counted the number of times a contestant rose without locking their arms giving the contestant a "fault count" . The contestants final score was their raw score minus their fault count.