Filipino is world’s shortest man

The Guinness Book of World Records has declared an 18-year-old Filipino as the world’s shortest man.
Junrey Balawing clapped his hands after Guinness editor-in-chief Craig Glenday officially declared him as the world’s shortest man, at the health centre in Sindangan town of Zamboanga del Norte province, 865 kilometres south of Manila on the nation’s 113th Independence Day last weekend.
At just 59.7 centimetres, Balawing struggles to walk and cannot stand for too long. He replaced the 67-centimetre Nepali Khagendra Megar at the top of the list.
He is the eldest of the four children of blacksmith Reynaldo Balawing and his wife Concepcion.
“Thank you to all of you for supporting my son, the world’s shortest man,” Junrey’s blacksmith father, Reynaldo, told a crush of reporters and photographers.
Junrey then blew out a candle on a cake specially made for him, before telling the crowd in a tiny voice in the local dialect: “Kapoy (I’m tired).”
A throng of well-wishers, including politicians, witnessed the official measurement then handed him wads of cash which his parents said would go towards the family’s meagre savings.
Junrey’s father said he had always believed his son to be special.
He said he had been sickly as a toddler and stopped growing when he was two years old, but local doctors who examined him could not diagnose the problem.
His mother, Concepcion, said Junrey has difficulty standing for long periods and has to be assisted when walking.
The couple at first enrolled Junrey at a regular school, but eventually had to pull him out because of his safety -- children would crowd around him and on one occasion nearly crushed him in their curiosity, his relatives said.
Khagendra’s stint as world’s shortest man saw him travel to more than a dozen countries and make special television appearances in Europe and the United States.
He had also become the official face of Nepal’s tourism campaign, which featured him as he smallest man in a country that is home to Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak.