More than 1,250 spongy red balls flew between 4,979 players for about an hour



Philip Robertson, who flew in from New York for the game, took to the stage.

He said, 'What can I say. Iíve never seen so many people throw dodge balls against each other before. It was tremendous to watch, really good fun. The guidelines were all followed. And with that, I'm happy to announce that University of Alberta, Canada, has a new Guinness World Record.'

The record has changed hands several times in recent years between students of the Canadian university and The University of California in Irvine.



The first University of Alerta recordwas set in 2010 with 1,198 players, and the next year with 2012.



Rivalry: The students from the University of Alberta retake the title from the University of California, Irvine After more than an hour-long of pushing, running and throwing by players, the Guinness World Record adjudicator declared the record official Dean of students, Frank Robinson said: ''This is a major lift for students, seeing more than a few thousand people cheering. I think it’s just one of those times when we can say, university is more than just a bunch of people going to classes. It’s definitely more than that.'

'It does not matter if it’s a dodgeball game or spelling bee, the point is if when you have that many people gaining a sense of community, you can’t help but feel good about it.' Second-year student Dani Yu told the University website: ' We were fighting for one goal, to get the record back,” Yu said. “This is not the same experience as going to class, this was fun.' University officials praised the sense of community created by the game of dodgeball







