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FastestThings

Badminton

Tan Boon Heong

The male hit Rankireddy broke. The Indian Express, the Badminton Museum and a Japan record certificate all print 493 km/h in May 2013.

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Ball speed

Published as 493 km/hPublished as 493 km/hPublished as 493 km/h

Previous Guinness fastest badminton hit (male), Tan Boon Heong, May 2013, Yonex factory gymnasium in Soka. 493 km/h is also written 306 mph and 306.34 mph. A Japan record page prints 28 May 2013. The English accounts say May 2013 and do not print the day, so no day is stored.

OfficialThe Indian Express (opens source in a new tab)

In context

  • 4.7× a cheetah's timed top speedSourced · Cheetah, 29 m/s. Sharp 1997, mean of three timed runs over 201.2 m
  • 1.5 football fields a secondConstant · American football field, 100 yd (91.44 m)
  • London to New York in 11 h 18 minConstant · London to New York, 5,570 km great-circle

Worked out from the sourced figure above, which stays the ranked number.

This list

Why it's so fast

A badminton smash is a whip. The arm, the wrist and the string bed accelerate a light shuttle, which then slows down almost at once because the skirt catches the air.

  1. The whip

    Speed comes from a long lever and a late snap, not from a heavy projectile. The shuttle leaves the string bed at its fastest and is already slowing.

  2. A reading at the hit

    The figure on this list is the measured speed of the smash the sources timed. It is not how fast the shuttle is still going at the other baseline.

This is how the category works. A note written for this entry appears here once it is in the database.

Provenance

Every measurement

Claimed, measured and official figures side by side, each with its source. The ranked figure is marked.

  1. 493km/h306mph137m/s266knRanked figure

    Previous Guinness fastest badminton hit (male), Tan Boon Heong, May 2013, Yonex factory gymnasium in Soka. 493 km/h is also written 306 mph and 306.34 mph. A Japan record page prints 28 May 2013. The English accounts say May 2013 and do not print the day, so no day is stored.

    The Badminton Museum prints 306 miles per hour (493 km per hour) in May 2013. The Japan record page prints 493 km/h. 306 mph and 306.34 mph are that kilometre figure rounded.

    Official
    The Indian Express (opens source in a new tab)

Reference

Specs

Player
Tan Boon Heong
Record
Previous fastest hit, male
Speed
493 km/h
When
May 2013

Context

Background

The Indian Express says Rankireddy broke the mark set in May 2013 by Tan Boon Heong, 493 km/h, also written 306.34 mph. The Badminton Museum prints the previous record as 306 miles per hour, 493 km per hour, in May 2013. The Japan Record Association's certificate for the fastest men's badminton hit in Japan prints 493 km/h by Tan Boon Heong at the Yonex factory gymnasium in Soka on 28 May 2013.

The ranked figure is 493 km/h. The mile writings are the same speed. Only one of the three accounts prints 28 May, so the row has no stored day. A 2013 news story that called a 493 km/h attempt unofficial predates the certificate these later accounts treat as the Guinness mark Rankireddy broke.

Spot a wrong number?

Every report is read by a person, and corrections are dated on the page.