Rubik champ bids for glory

04 August 2004 07:54

For most people, breaking your jaw in a cycling accident would offer little or no long-term benefits.

But for one Norfolk teenager, a tumble from his bike put him on the road to success - after he found the ideal way to twiddle his thumbs.

While convalescing after the accident, 19-year-old Dan Harris' hands made light work of a Rubik's Cube he found kicking around at his Gorleston home.

So good is he at his new hobby that only two years later, the University of East Anglia student will take part in the first ever European Rubik's Games Championships in Holland at the weekend.

He puts his meteoric rise down to hours and hours of practice and a gritty determination to be the best at what he does.

Currently the UK champion, Dan's unofficial personal best time for 'sorting' the cube is 13.11 seconds, placing him well within the less than 20 seconds needed in order to clinch the title set by the current world champion, US software designer Dan Knights.

But the son of a milkman and waitress, and former student of East Norfolk Sixth Form, is cautious about his prospects.

"As I'm working full-time in the summer to help pay my way through university, I don't have as much time to practise as I'd like but if I keep my nerves in check, I think a competition time of about 18 seconds is realistic. I am aiming to come in the top 10 in Europe," he said.

Dan said that before he got involved in speed cubing he had not travelled much but in the last two years he has been to America, Canada, Holland and Belgium.

The meteorology and oceanography student will be competing against 60 competitors from 16 countries at the championships in Amsterdam, including seven-year-old Wiktoria Zborowska from Poland.

Dan obviously has a head for numbers and systems having studied further maths, maths, physics, chemistry and computing at A-level.

But he says no one else in his family shares his love of the cube.

"My sister hates it. It was just hanging around at home after the accident - I don't know where it came from.

"It took me a while to learn a method and then I just wanted to get faster.

"I am the kind of person that when I learn something I want to be the best at it. I have learned a lot by talking to friends on the internet," he said.

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