Fountain Hills High School has produced another world record holder in the epic battle for “most potatoes fired through a tennis racquet in a minute,” and he goes by the name of Cameron …
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Cameron Ribail breaks world record
FHHS student Cameron Ribail has broken the world record of most potatoes fired through a tennis racquet in one minute, topping the previous record by a single potato for a grand total of 18.
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Fountain Hills High School has produced another world record holder in the epic battle for “most potatoes fired through a tennis racquet in a minute,” and he goes by the name of Cameron Ribail.
Science teacher Dr. Paul McElligott set up the world record attempt several years ago, tasking students with designing and constructing potato launchers to use for the project.
While the previous record was broken by a FHHS student several years prior, Ribail managed to top that benchmark by a single potato with his attempt earlier this year. It’s taken a few months for the folks at Guinness to go through all of the evidence submitted for Ribail’s attempt, recently announcing his placement as a world record holder.
The Competition pre-trials were held in early May with more than 250 students involved from several classes including Physics, chemistry and biology, if the students wished to participate. Invitations were sent to over 25 high schools throughout the county.
A total of 150 students came over three weeks to qualify for the finals on May 7, 2014. Only five students were left to compete by scoring 17-18 potatoes through the racquet. With the exception of ten launchers, which were disqualified based on safety reasons, 135 students were disqualified on the basis of not being able to tie or beat the world record of 17 set three years earlier.
The day of the competition, a news crew, television crew, students and faculty converged on the high school campus to hear a winner declared after reviewing the slow motion camera results.
At the day of the competition, five students had tied the previous record of 17 potatoes and these were the students chosen for the final day of competition. After all students had completed their attempts, two students were tied at what was perceived as 18 potatoes. A final round was completed and the slow motion video was consulted.
In the end, Ribail was declared the winner with 18 clean shots through the racquet. Guinness has concurred and its site will soon be updated with the new results. Ribail will also receive a plaque from Guinness commemorating his efforts.
