Amateur gymnasts in Japan have set a world record for the most people doing back handsprings simultaneously.

A gymnastics school in the southwestern city of Fukuoka organized the challenge on Sunday with the hope of being recognized by Guinness World Records.

The challenge attracted 172 participants from as young as five to those in their 60s.

Their feat would be recognized if all the participants perform back handsprings within 5 seconds and land on their feet without falling down.

They were allowed to make three attempts.

The participants executed the acrobatic move with a signal from an official adjudicator.

The adjudicator checked video footage of the first try and announced that 161 people had succeeded in performing the move at the same time.

That's one person more than the current record set by a Japanese group in 2017.

Until that time, the Fukuoka school had held the record of 140 people.