Master Johnny Day, Australian Champion Pedestrian

Johnny Day (1856-?) was an undefeated world-champion juvenile walker. Born in Victoria, he competed in Australia and London, winning 101 matches by 1866. In late 1863, the Argus reported that ‘Martin, of Bendigo, a pedestrian of some note, has challenged John Day, of Ballarat, a lad eight years of age, to walk him a distance of 800 yards for £5 a side’. In 1865 the Kentish Dwarf and Master Johnny Day had a trial of speed on the Ballarat Cricket Ground. A print of Day executed in 1866 states that he was just short of four feet tall and weighed four stone at that time. In 1867 he was walking 300 times around ‘the circle’ at the New Royal Victoria Theatre in Sydney, attempting to cover five miles in less than 50 minutes. In the 1860s, long-distance walking, or pedestrianism, was a lucrative international glamour sport, its big names including American Edward Payson Weston; New Zealander Joe Scott; Englishmen William Edwards and George Wilson; and others like the Cambridge Wonder, the Sharp Sheffield Blade, the Wily Wobbler and the Flying Cobbler. (The Sydney identity the Flying Pieman was renowned for his pedestrian feats, but these were achieved before professional competition began in earnest.) Pedestrianism declined in popularity with the rise of competitive cycling. The adult fate of Johnny Day is yet to be established.