Track and field athletics grew from infancy to adulthood in a fifteen-year period explored in this ground-breaking book. The world’s first national championships, launched in 1866 by the Amateur Athletic Club, set the basic programme still followed today in its metric equivalent in the Olympic Games and all championships. Giants of Victorian sport like W.G.Grace, Donald Dinnie, Tom Malone, the Davin brothers and Walter George competed regularly. Organised athletics was then taken up in Europe, the Empire and America. After an introduction that transports the reader to a typical meeting of 1866, the book comprises full results of the championships, annual year lists by performer and performance, an index of more than 3000 names with birth and death dates where known (a valuable resource for family historians), a summary of key developments and a copy of the first rules. Twenty-two contemporary illustrations show Victorian athletes in action. The authors are experts on the history of the sport.