Football supporters of a certain (middle) age may well remember the Rumbelows Sprint Challenge. In 1992, the electrical retailer and then sponsor of the League Cup ran a competition to find English football’s fastest runner over 100 yards.
Liverpool’s Mark Walters didn’t make it through to the final (which took place at Wembley ahead of the Rumbelows Cup final between Manchester United and Nottingham Forest), so it was Swansea’s John Williams (a.k.a. ‘the flying postman’) who won the race to earn £10,000 and a new TV. It was a very different time.
As fun as it would be to bring back, such a contest would never happen in the present day. However, in 2022 we have data on player’s running in Premier League matches to at least be able to estimate who might have won the Carabao Sprint Challenge this season. We can be far more scientific than simply relying upon the ratings from FIFA 22 too.
