ABSTRACT
Even by today's standards in sprint competition, Wharton's record time of 10 seconds dead in both the heat and final of the 100 yards (91.4 metres) at the AAA Championships at Stamford Bridge in July 1886 is remarkable. He managed to achieve 'even time' - the holy grail of sprinters - at a major meeting just one season after first participating in athletics events in the North of England. While Arthur had rivals for the title 'fastest runner of his generation' - most notably Harry Hutchens - his time at Stamford Bridge is now recognised as the first official achievement o f evens' at a national championship anywhere in the world. It has been formally recognised as the first world record for the distance. Furthermore, he was the first runner from outside the London Athletic club to win the AAA sprint title. One prominent member of the AAA establishment, Montague Shearman (1887), lamented that the 1886 Championships marked the demise of the southern 'gentleman' athlete and the rise to pre-eminence of the working-class runner from the North. To deepen further Shearman's nostalgic melancholia, another northerner, F.T. Ritchie from Bradford, was third to Wharton.
