Urmila Tawar says she lifted a combined 89,000 pounds overhead in six hours on Saturday, July 11, at CrossFit Johns Creek. If that number sounds impossible, consider that kettlebell sport measures cumulative weight moved across hundreds of repetitions with a single bell.

According to a profile in The Creek magazine published Monday, July 20, the lift set a world record in the six-hour One Arm Jerk Extreme Marathon, the first record ever established in that event by any individual regardless of sex, age, or weight class.

Tawar, who goes by Urmi, and her 11-year-old daughter Arya Negre are Johns Creek residents who compete for Team USA through the International Kettlebell Marathon Federation. Both hold world records in the sport, which requires athletes to keep a kettlebell moving overhead for 30 minutes, an hour, or longer without setting it down.

"I was discovered by the Team USA captain and have been part of the USA delegation since 2021, traveling to France, Belgium and Hungary and winning multiple gold, silver and one bronze over the years in different lifts," Tawar told The Creek.

How it started

Tawar moved to Georgia in 2017 with a PhD in biomedical sciences and a background in college volleyball and table tennis. She signed up for a class at CrossFit Johns Creek, entered a casual gym competition that same year, and kept going. When COVID-era online competitions took off in 2020, she won enough to catch the attention of Team USA's captain.

Arya followed her mother into the sport. She entered her first international competition in Hungary in 2023 at age eight. She didn't medal that year. In 2024, competing in Belgium at age nine, she won gold and set a world record in the Pentathlon, a grueling format requiring six different lifts performed in sequence with rest intervals between each set.

Comeback and Syracuse championship

In April 2025, Tawar broke her leg and underwent two surgeries over six months. The injury halted travel and competition but not her planning.

Recovered, she and Arya competed at the IKMF's first-ever World Championships in the Western Hemisphere, held May 22–24 at the Nicholas J. Pirro Convention Center in Syracuse, N.Y., according to Onondaga County government records. Delegations from Australia, Canada, Denmark, Hungary, India, and Poland competed alongside 86 Team USA athletes.

Tawar won gold in double kettlebell and placed second in single kettlebell, both 30-minute events. Arya won gold in both of her events, lifting a combined 6,138 pounds overhead in a 30-minute One Arm Half Snatch and winning the double-kettlebell Pentathlon. She set a new world record for her age group in the half snatch, according to The Creek's profile.

Team USA finished first in the overall medal tally, Tawar said.

Giving back

During her July 11 world record attempt, Tawar raised more than $600 for two nonprofits serving vulnerable teens: Will to Live, a Johns Creek-based organization founded by John and Susie Trautwein after the suicide death of their son, and The Trevor Project.

Tawar earned her kettlebell coaching certification in 2019 and now teaches as an advanced coach at CrossFit Johns Creek, where her students range from 11 to 83 years old.

What's next

The Jingle Bells Kettlebell Sport Competition is scheduled for December at CrossFit Johns Creek. A specific date has not been announced; details will be posted at crossfit-johnscreek.com.