18-year-old Cameron Heinig (USA) has set a world record by catching a tennis ball from a height of 143.11 metres (469.5 ft), beating the previous record by 23 metres (75.4 ft).
Cameron achieved the world’s highest catch of a tennis ball with the assistance of his friend Julian, who piloted a drone to release the ball from the record-breaking height.
“It did not hurt as much as I thought it would,” said Cameron, who was required to catch the ball with his bare hands. “It didn't hurt any more than a really hard high-five.”
New record: Highest catch of a tennis ball - 143.11 metres by Cameron Heinig (USA) 🎾 pic.twitter.com/6qihv1Wr5D
— Guinness World Records (@GWR) October 20, 2023
Cameron and Julian spent two summers practising to break this record.
Cameron says he “didn’t even come close” to catching the ball during the first summer, finding it a challenge to predict where the ball would land.
The pair were discouraged but had no intention of giving up, and the next summer, they began practising again.
Julian 3D printed a more accurate dropping apparatus for the drone, and Cameron came up with the idea to practise while wearing a baseball glove, which allowed him to focus more on positioning himself underneath the falling ball rather than catching it.
Cameron found himself able to consistently get to the ball, so he then decided to practise catching it without the glove.
“I was a little worried that it would hurt, but I figured it was worth it for a Guinness World Records title,” he said.
Incredibly, he caught it barehanded on his first try. However, Cameron admitted that this was “a total fluke” and several days passed before he successfully caught it again.
By the end of the summer, Cameron was ready for his official attempt.
Unfortunately, it didn’t go to plan the first time around, as the surveyor, who was there to measure the height of the ball drop, said the drone was too small to get an accurate reading on when up in the sky.
Cameron and Julian rescheduled the record attempt for another day and went away to add a reflector prism to the drone, enabling the surveyor’s equipment to detect it.
However, this created another issue, as the small drone struggled to fly with the added weight.
“We didn’t have time to get a larger drone, so we just had to push the little drone to its limits,” Cameron explained.
“This meant that I would have only a few attempts to catch the tennis ball before the drone ran out of battery.”
Fortunately, when he attempted the record again, he caught the ball on the third drop, with plenty of battery remaining.
Cameron is a keen tennis player and believes that this allowed him to track the falling ball more accurately than other people. “Many of my friends who watched the attempt said they couldn't see the ball while it was falling,” he said.
As thanks for helping him achieve this world record, Cameron is now helping Julian prepare to break the record for the longest sustained note on a wind or brass instrument, which is currently held by Hav Shambhu Kumar (India) with a time of 1 min 23.04 sec.
“Holding a Guinness World Records title feels great,” Cameron said. “It is surely my greatest achievement.”
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