Spaniard claims world human statue title

The World Championships of Human Statues, held this year in the Dutch city of Arnhem, have been won by a Spaniard for his interpretation of a backward fall from a skateboard into cardboard boxes.

Jamie Jurio, a street artist who performed an optical illusion of sitting in an invisible chair in Zaragoza and Vitoria, among other Spanish cities, last year took the prize at the event, which drew in thousands of visitors and 200 competitors. To lend more realism to his creation, Jurio appeared to have a bottle of water and a pair of yellow headphones floating around his head.

The festival is a Dutch initiative that has spawned imitators across the globe, from Portugal to Argentina. For the Dutch showpiece event, preliminary rounds were held in Belgium, Ukraine, Poland, Romania and Honduras.