Satwik 'smashes' Guinness world record with fastest badminton hits

Star India shuttler Satwiksairaj Rankireddy has set the Guinness world record for the fastest hit by a male player in badminton, recording a mindboggling 565 km/h with his smash.

Satwik, who alongwith his partner Chirag Shetty won the Indonesia Open Super 1000 recently, thus broke a decade-long record set in May, 2013 by Malaysian Tan Boon Heong, who had produced a speed of 493 km/h (306.34 mph) with his smash.

Satwik's smash was faster than the top speed of 372.6 km/h achieved by a Formula 1 car.

Malaysia's Tan Pearly set the Guinness world record for the fastest female badminton hits with a remarkable speed of 438 km/h (about 272 mph).

"Yonex is proud to announce that Yonex badminton athletes, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (IND) and Tan Pearly (MAS), have set new Guinness world records title for the fastest male and female badminton hits," the Japanese sports equipment manufacturing company said in a release.

"Since the previous Guinness world records title for the fastest badminton hit was recorded in May 2013, this means that Rankireddy broke the record for the first time in more than a decade."

The world record attempts were achieved on April 14, 2023, and were verified by official judges from the Guinness world records based on the speed measurement results from that day.

Satwik's smash was conducted in a controlled environment at the Yonex factory gymnasium in Soka, Saitama, Japan.