Fastest sports in the world 1

Fastest sports part 1 – Ball sports.

Everyone has an opinion on this so we though we’d put it to bed by getting some definitive evidence!   To determine the fastest sports we looked at a few fitting criteria –

A ball or item that travels at very high speed that has to be caught or returned by another person.  Thus requiring split second reaction times.

Or a sport that involves someone travelling at very high speed.  Here are the fastest non motorised sports

We put this out on twitter and got a huge response and one interesting one was golf, golf balls can travel at over 200mph but unfortunately this doesn’t fit the above criteria.  At PledgeSports we have athletes and teams crowdfunding every sport from tchoukball to sled dogging to skydiving but we learnt a new one writing this.

Here it is, enjoy!

This was a big surprise to us.  There’s no ball here but a shuttlecock, which means feathers! But don’t let this deceive you, this shuttlecock can go very, very fast.  According to the Badminton World Federation, Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei holds the sport’s record.  He hit a 253mph smash at the Hong Kong open in 2015

Squash

Although squash is played with a hollow rubber ball, the best in the sport can hit it at astounding speeds.  Australian Cameron Pilley is broke his own world record by hitting two serves that were recorded 176 mp/h (281.6 km/h) in 2011

The most dangerous sports you can play

With skating speeds in to 29mph and pucks regularly clocked at 100mph + ice hockey is well renowned as one of the fastest sports.

Baseball

While advancements in strength and conditioning have come a long way in the last 40 years, the speed at which a pitcher throws a baseball has not. Although the technology to track pitches wasnt as good, in 1974 hall of famer Nolan Ryan threw at 108.1 mph (174.0 km/h). Since then, Cincinnati Reds reliever Aroldis Chapman has come the closest to reaching that mark, hitting 105.1 pmh (169.1 km/h) as a rookie back in 2010

Cricket

While cricket may not require the extreme physicality and fitness of hockey or tennis players, it does rquire a lot of skill as balls travel at high speeds, with pitchers and bowlers propelling balls at 95-100 mph.  The highest electronically measured speed for a ball bowled by any bowler is 161.3 km/h (100.23 mph) by Shoaib Akhtar (Pakistan) against England in 2003

 Hurling / Camogie

Hurlings exciting combination of speed and skill is the reason why its often described one of the greatest field sport in the world.  The goalkeeper’s hurley usually has a bas (the flattened, curved end) twice the size of other players’ hurleys to provide some advantage against the fast moving sliotar (ball) which can be hit at over 90 mph in speed and 110m in distance.

Think of another fastest sport? Let us know