(Forsyth County, GA) On February 13, a nationwide record was broken at the Sharon Forks Library in Forsyth County. Tommy Cherry broke the North American Rubik’s Cube Record for Clock average with a time of just 7.72 seconds. Cherry is now only 0.16 seconds off the world record, which is held by Yunhao Lou of China.
Cherry, a high school senior, is a “competitive speedcuber.” He started cubing in 2015 after watching a YouTube tutorial and has attended more than 65 World Cube Association competitions. Cherry traveled from Riviera Beach, Florida for the Sharon Forks competition.
“[The event] was held at the library because one of our Sharon Forks Library patrons reserved our meeting room,” said Leslie Marinelli, the Communications Manager for the Forsyth County Public Library. “[P]eople are always so excited to learn they can use their library card to reserve library meeting rooms, conference rooms, and study rooms for free.”
The Sharon Forks Library has even hosted other World Cube Association events in the past such as the 2022 Sharon Forks Showdown, which was organized by Jeopardy! contestant Raymond Goslow and Forsyth County resident Vishwa Sankar.
Cubing competitions
Founded in 2004, the World Cube Association governs competitions for mechanical puzzles that are operated by twisting groups of pieces, commonly known as 'twisty puzzles'. The most famous of these puzzles is the Rubik's Cube, invented by Professor Rubik from Hungary. The toy hit the market in 1980 and became one of the most popular toys of all time. In addition to the Rubik’s cube, a selection of other puzzles are chosen as official events of the WCA, which has over 100,000 competitors across 140 countries.
“Cubing competitions have 17 different categories, ranging from cubic puzzles like a 3x3 or 7x7, to differently shaped puzzles such as a clock and even alternative ways of solving puzzles such as 3x3 fewest moves or 4x4 blindfolded,” explained Cherry.
Cherry competes in multiple cubing categories. He holds the world record in 3x3 blindfolded, and now he is second in the world for the Rubik’s Clock.
“Pretty much ever since I started out, I've wanted to know how to do every event, and the clock happened to be one of the easiest for me to improve at,” Cherry said.
Cherry hopes to continue perfecting his skills and achieve world records for the clock. He hopes to continue cubing in college, where he plans to study math and computer science, both of which have “numerous applications to cubing” according to Cherry. One day, Cherry’s goal is to be a Rubik’s Cube world champion.
With the progress he has made so far, that goal certainly seems to be within Cherry’s reach. His friends in Forsyth County will be cheering him on.
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