For the first time since setting the world record in 2022, Max Park has recorded a WCA-official average below five seconds.
Park recorded a 4.99 average in the 3x3 final at Temecula Valley Summer 2026:
5.27, 4.84, 4.87, (4.77), (6.27) = 4.99
The result is the fifth sub-5 average in North American history:
Matty Hiroto Inaba: 4.72
Max Park: 4.86
Luke Garrett: 4.88
Luke Garrett: 4.94
Max Park: 4.99
Entering the fifth solve, Park still had a chance to improve his 4.86 personal best. With times of 5.27, 4.84, 4.87 and 4.77 already recorded, his best possible average was 4.83. Any fifth solve of 4.77 or faster would have been discarded, leaving 4.77, 4.84 and 4.87 as the counting solves.
A 4.83 would have been a new personal best and the second-fastest North American average, behind only Matty Hiroto Inaba’s 4.72. Instead, Park’s 6.27 was discarded as the slowest solve, producing the final 4.99.
Only Park, Garrett and Inaba have recorded an official sub-5 average for North America.
For Park, the result ends a wait of nearly four years. His previous sub-5 was the 4.86 world record he set at Marshall Cubing September 2022:
4.62, 4.78, (5.68), 5.19, (4.50) = 4.86
That result remains Park’s personal best and currently ranks second in North America behind Inaba’s 4.72.
Park won all three 3x3 rounds at Temecula, recording a 5.48 in the opening round and a 5.61 in the second round before breaking five seconds in the final.
The 4.99 does not improve his personal record, but it adds another result to one of the shortest lists in North American speedcubing. More than three years after setting North America’s first sub-5 average, Park has added a second to his career.
I WAS THERE!!!