<Anchor>
Ahn Woo-jin of Kiwoom, a professional baseball player, threw a 160 km/h high-speed ball for the first time as a domestic pitcher.
We are opening a new era in Korean baseball with a fastball that is getting faster and faster.
This is reporter Bae Jung-hoon.
<Reporter>
Yesterday (23rd), Ahn Woo-jin, who played without a score in the 7th inning against Samsung, raised his speed even more when he faced a crisis for the first time at the end of the 8th.
He hit 159 km/h on the 96th pitch, and he wrote a new Korean baseball history for the 97th pitch.
[Now, 160km/h is displayed on the display.
hey…
160km/h was recorded.] 160km/h is
the highest speed ever recorded by a Korean pitcher, exceeding 158km/h recorded by Uhm Jung-wook in 2003.
Even including foreigners, he is the second fast-ball pitcher in history after LG Leeds, who threw 162 km/h 8 years ago.
[Ahn Woo-jin/Pitcher Kiwoom: I came out upstairs (electric sign) and took it and saw it, and it came out a little better.
So I got more energy there, and I think that being able to throw 160km/h even if I run out of 100 is an advantage...
.]
Ahn Woo-jin is recording an all-time high with an average fastball speed of 153.3 km/h this season, and even in the major leagues where there are a lot of fast ball pitchers, only 9 starting pitchers have an average speed faster than Ahn Woo-jin. There are only two players in baseball.
Ahn Woo-jin, who has increased his average speed by nearly 5 km/h since joining the club in 2018, is having the best season as he ranks first in the domestic pitcher in terms of multiple wins and strikeouts.
(Video editing: Oh Young-taek, CG: Uhm So-min)