Almost good enough for an NFL Combine.
When Thierry Henry set an impressive time of 4.82 seconds over 40-metres, no-one at Arsenal fancied the club record would be troubled for some time.
Less than five years later and Theo Walcott was the new record holder. The English attacker blazed through the track, set up at the Gunner’s Islington training ground, in an astounding time of 4.42.
That time, however, was bettered by young Spanish defender Hector Bellerin.
Bellerin, who scored Arsenal’s opener in last weekend’s 4-1 win over Liverpool, shaved a hundredth of a second off Walcott’s time. The club record is now 4.41 and has yet to be improved upon.
To put that in perspective, it is 0.36 faster than the 4.77 seconds recorded by South Africa and Toulon winger Bryan Habana.
The record, at the 2015 NFL combine, University of Alabama’s JJ Nelson took 4.28 seconds to cover 40 yards [36.5 metres].
‘Blitz’, the Seattle Seahawks mascot, clocked 5.81 in a giant hawk get-up. Would probably beat the best SportsJOE could muster.
