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Wales Online
Wales Online
Sport
Jon Doel

How fast is Louis Rees-Zammit? Top speed revealed during wonder try against Fiji

It was the moment of sheer athletic brilliance that lit up Wales v Fiji and left rugby fans open-mouthed.

We are, of course, talking about Louis Rees-Zammit's wonder try at the Principality Stadium.

Receiving the ball just inside his own 10m line, the young winger chipped ahead and galloped his way to one of the most memorable tries in recent memory, eating up ground on his opponents who had been given a 20m head start.

So, how fast did he actually run?

S4C put their own speedometer on him in the aftermath of the game, showing Rees-Zammit reached a top speed of 24 mph, or 10.73 metres per second.

That's quicker than the 23.48mph he has been measured at before in a game for Gloucester against Saracens in the season before last.

It also moves him up the list of rugby's fastest players, with the Welshman just behind England's Adam Radwan and Christian Wade, in terms of recorded times for 15s players.

Radwan was previously clocked 10.85 metres per second in an England training session, while Wade, who has since moved to American Football, has reached 11.2 m/s.

It's rare for players in the 15-a-side game to reach these top level speeds in a match environment compared to a controlled training one, but New Zealand winger Rieko Ioane was clocked at 10.69 metres per second (23.92 mph) when making a try-saving chase and tackle against Australia in September.

Rees-Zammit has just beaten him, according to S4C's speed tracker.

S4C analyst and Wales great Shane Williams said: "He was screaming for the ball every time Dan Biggar got it. The try he got, he got the ball flat, he knows he's fast enough and he did the right thing: Put his foot to the ball.

"Volavolo is sleeping. I don't know if he knew Rees-Zammit was behind him and he should have done a lot better really."

The try saw wild celebrations from Wayne Pivac and his fellow coaches up in the stands.

American Carlin Isles carries the tag of rugby's fastest man. He has previously recorded a top speed of 11.5m/s (25.7mph) and has a 100m PB of 10.15 seconds.

For context, Usain Bolt reached a maximum speed of 12.4 metres per second when setting the 100m world record of 9.58 seconds in 2009.

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