Sean Villanueva achieves ‘total domination’ of one-handed speedcubing with new world record

Recent Ateneo de Manila Junior High School completer Sean Villanueva (10-Sitjar in SY 2023-2024) has set a new world record and a new Philippine record in 3x3x3 one-handed (OH) speedcubing with a single-solve time of 6.05 seconds. He achieved the jawdropping feat during the Clocked In Quezon City 2024 competition held on 30 June 2024 at NS Amoranto Tennis Court in Quezon City.

With this latest achievement, the teen has now achieved “total domination” of the OH 3x3x3 event, per the Philippine Cubers Association. That’s because Villanueva now holds both the world record and the national record for the OH single solve (6.05 seconds) AND the world record for the OH average solve (8.09 seconds), which he set on 26 May 2024 in the Quezon City II Open tournament. (In the same QC II event held in late May, Villanueva became the national record-holder of the OH 3x3x3 single solve with a time of 6.60 seconds. His new time of 6.05 seconds in Clocked In Quezon City a month later saw him break his own record.) And last but certainly not least, he is of course the reigning OH 3x3x3 World Champion after winning the Rubik’s World Cube Association (WCA) World Championships held in Incheon, South Korea on 15 August 2023.  

At the AJHS Closing Ceremony on 29 May 2024, Sean Villanueva completed Junior High School as the recipient of two awards: the Saint Robert Bellarmine Award for Academic Excellence and the Subject Area Award for Computer Education.