Record in the new discipline of keyboard typing speed

03/29/2004, 21:20

Within the announcement of annual prizes which traditionally forms part of the programme of the gala social evening of the ISSS conference in Hradec Kralove, on Monday March 29 a unique attempt at establishing a world record in typing speed and sending an email with the length of 1,500 characters was made.

"It concerns a brand-new discipline in the portfolio of competitions for speed of text processing by various technologies, including typing on a computer keyboard," pointed out Jaroslav Zavjacic from the association INTERINFO CR, which professionally focuses on this issue. "At the present time, we are submitting a proposal to include "processing an email message with the length of 1,500 characters" in the international list of official disciplines for the world championships."

As the first of the three participants in the impromptu competition within the social evening, Minister of Informatics of the Czech Republic Vladimir Mlynar sat down at the computer. He produced a very respectable performance, managing to type the email text in just over 9 minutes. However, the achievements of the professionals were something else entirely. Milos Cernilovsky, a 14-year-old student from Hradec Kralove, holder of the title of junior world champion in computer typing, wrote the text in 2 minutes, 19 seconds. The adult world champion, Praguer Helena Matouskova, an employee of the methodological e-learning workplace, achieved the breathtaking feat of typing the text within 1 minute, 37 seconds.