Golf vs Jai Alai: World's fastest ball sport

It is 31 years to the day that Biscay''s José Ramon Areitio set the record for the fastest shot played in a game of Jai Alai. In the Newport Fronton of Rhode Island USA, Areitio reached a speed of 302 kilometres (187 miles) per hour, then the fastest world ball speed ever recorded.

Canadian golfer Jack Zuback broke Areitio''s record in 2007 on US Fox Sports Net TV show Sport Science which challenged Zuback to dispel "the myth" of Jai Alai. He broke Areitio''s record, driving a golf ball with a speed of 328 kilometres (200 miles) per hour.

Good will - and perhaps also some friendly rivalry - was what brought Basque golfer Txema Olazabal and compatriot Jai Alai ''puntista'' Imanol López to Hondarribia''s Jostaldi Fronton to meet the speed challenge face-to-face.

The Sports Association SPORT MUNDI, the council of Hondarribia and the company Jai-Alive, dedicated to professional Jai Alai, joined forces to raise money for the Ethiopia-Utopia foundation.

Sport Mundi, of which Olazabal is President, is dedicated to the promotion of solidarity in sports.

The event was held as part of Hondarribia''s summer festival which for the past four years has fronted a revival of Jai Alai, a game more recently eclipsed by more the more typical game of ''hand-ball'' pelota.

As part of the proceedings, and with the grand excuse of raising funds, this Jai Alai renewed its challenge to golf''s - and Olazabal''s - claim of being the fastest ball sport.

Speeds on Friday did not reach those set by either Areitio or Zuback, but on 244 km/h to López''s 243 km/h, Olazabal proved once again that golf is the world''s fastest ball sport.