Introduction
Athletics is a group of sporting events that involves competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking. The most common types of athletics competitions are track and field, road running, cross-country running, and racewalking.
The results of racing events are decided by finishing position (or time, where measured), while the jumps and throws are won by the athlete that achieves the highest or furthest measurement from a series of attempts. The simplicity of the competitions, and the lack of a need for expensive equipment, makes athletics one of the most common types of sports in the world. Athletics is mostly an individual sport, with the exception of relay races and competitions which combine athletes' performances for a team score, such as cross country.
Organized athletics are traced back to the Ancient Olympic Games from 776 BC. The rules and format of the modern events in athletics were defined in Western Europe and North America in the 19th and early 20th century, and were then spread to other parts of the world. Most modern top level meetings are held under the auspices of World Athletics, the global governing body for the sport of athletics, or its member continental and national federations. (Full article...)
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Selected article
A relay race is a racing competition where members of a team take turns completing parts of racecourse or performing a certain action.
In athletics, the two standard relays are the 4 × 100 metres relay and the 4 × 400 metres relay. 4 × 200, 4 × 800, and 4 × 1500 m relays exist as well, but they are rarer. Mixed-gendered 4 × 400 metres relays were introduced at the 2017 IAAF World Relays, repeated at the 2018 Asian Games, the 2019 World Championships in Athletics and were added to the 2020 Summer Olympics. In addition, a 2 × 2 × 400 m and shuttle hurdles mixed relay races were introduced at the 2019 IAAF World Relays.
Traditionally, the 4 × 400 m relay finals are the last event of a track meet,[citation needed] and is often met with a very enthusiastic crowd, especially if the last leg is a close race.[A] It is hard to measure exact splits in a 4 × 400 (or a 4 × 100) relay. For example, if a team ran a 3-minute 4 × 400, it does not mean every runner on the team has to run a 45-second open 400, because a person starts accelerating before they have the baton, therefore allowing for slightly slower overall open 400 times. A 4 × 400 relay generally starts in lanes for the first leg, including the handoff. The second leg then proceeds to run in lanes for the first 100 metres, after which point the runners are allowed to break into the first lane on the backstretch, as long as they do not interfere with other runners. A race organizer then puts the third-leg runners into a line depending on the order in which they are running (with the first place closest to the inside). The faster teams pass first, while the slower teams have to slide in to the inside lanes as they come available.
According to the IAAF rules, world records in relays can only be set if all team members have the same nationality. Several superior marks were established by teams from a mixture of countries and were thus never ratified.
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Athlete birthdays
22 March:
- Armin Hary, German sprinter
- Hwang Young-cho, Korean distance runner
- Staņislavs Olijars, Latvian hurdler
- António Pinto, Portuguese distance runner
- Michel Théato, Luxembourgish-French distance runner
- Zhang Wenxiu, Chinese hammer thrower
23 March:
- Platt Adams, American standing jumper
- Roger Bannister, British middle-distance runner
- Jerry Cornes, British middle-distance runner
- Mo Farah, British distance runner
- Frank Irons, American long jumper
- Ana Fidelia Quirot, Cuban middle-distance runner
24 March:
- Floyd Heard, American sprinter
- Albert Hill, British middle-distance runner
- Periklís Iakovákis, Greek hurdler
- Lucy Wangui Kabuu, Kenyan distance runner
- Emmit King, American sprinter
- Sergey Klyugin, Russian high jumper
- Renaldo Nehemiah, American hurdler
- William Porter, American hurdler
- Torsten Voss, German decathlete
25 March:
- Irving Baxter, American jumper
- Christina Cahill, British middle-distance runner
- María Caridad Colón, Cuban javelin thrower
- Stacy Dragila, American pole vaulter
- Muriel Hurtis-Houairi, French sprinter
- Abdalaati Iguider, Moroccan middle-distance runner
- Carl Kaufmann, German sprinter
- Stefka Kostadinova, Bulgarian high jumper
- Gunnar Nielsen, Danish middle-distance runner
- Aleksandr Puchkov, Soviet hurdler
- Irina Stankina, Russian race walker
- Mitchell Watt, Australian long jumper
26 March:
- Lennart Atterwall, Swedish javelin thrower
- Barbara Jones, American sprinter
- Stig Pettersson, Swedish high jumper
- Tatyana Providokhina, Soviet middle-distance runner
- Violeta Szekely, Romanian middle-distance runner
- Vilho Tuulos, Finnish triple jumper
27 March:
- Nunu Abashidze, Soviet shot putter
- Irina Belova, Russian heptathlete
- Yuliya Golubchikova, Russian pole vaulter
- Jukka Keskisalo, Finnish steeplechase runner
- Aleksandr Klimenko, Ukrainian shot putter
- Antonina Lazareva, Soviet high jumper
- Mihaela Melinte, Romanian hammer thrower
- Dean Starkey, American pole vaulter
28 March:
- Ladji Doucouré, French hurdler
- Harvey Glance, American sprinter
- Evelin Jahl, German discus thrower
- Sylvia Kibet, Kenyan distance runner
- Aksana Miankova, Belarusian hammer thrower
- Martin Sheridan, Irish-American thrower and standing jumper
- Józef Szmidt, Polish triple jumper
- Ilke Wyludda, German discus thrower
- Olga Yegorova, Russian middle- and long-distance runner
Related portals
More did you know
- ... that Amane Gobena is the first Ethiopian runner to win the Osaka Ladies Marathon?
- ... that Oprah Winfrey completed the America's Finest City Half Marathon in 1993, running under a pseudonym and accompanied by a bodyguard, a trainer, and a video crew?
- ... that Sharon Cherop fell over at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon but got back up and ran the fastest marathon ever by a woman in Canada?
- ... that Kenyan athlete Paul Malakwen Kosgei became the World Half Marathon Champion in 2002 despite having never competed in a half marathon before?
- ... that A. K. M. Miraj Uddin set a Pakistani national record in the pole vault by clearing 12 feet 2 inches (3.71 m) with a bamboo pole instead of a carbon-fiber pole?
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Selected biography
Stamata Revithi (Greek: Σταμάτα Ρεβίθη; 1866 – after 1896) was a Greek woman who ran the 40-kilometre marathon during the 1896 Summer Olympics. The Games excluded women from competition, but Revithi insisted that she be allowed to run. Revithi ran one day after the men had completed the official race, and although she finished the marathon in approximately 5 hours and 30 minutes and found witnesses to sign their names and verify the running time, she was not allowed to enter the Panathinaiko Stadium at the end of the race. She intended to present her documentation to the Hellenic Olympic Committee in the hopes that they would recognize her achievement, but it is not known whether she did so. No known record survives of Revithi's life after her run.
According to contemporary sources, a second woman, "Melpomene", also ran the 1896 marathon race. There is debate among Olympic historians as to whether or not Revithi and Melpomene are the same person. (Full article...)
More selected biographies |
Did you know (auto-generated) -
- ... that at the 2022 British Athletics Championships, Daryll Neita became the first woman since 2010 to win both the 100- and 200-metre events?
- ... that Marthe Yankurije, who dropped out of school during her fourth year of secondary school, competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics?
- ... that every competitor at the 2021 British Athletics Marathon and 20km Walk Trial received a commemorative bonsai tree?
- ... that German runner Alica Schmidt, who is running in the Women's 4 × 400 metres relay at the 2020 Summer Olympics, has won multiple European junior relay medals?
- ... that the men's 100 metres event at the 2023 British Athletics Championships was run in heavy rain?
- ... that in the 1932 baseball game in which pitcher Eddie Rommel won his last game, he pitched 17 innings in relief, an American League record?
- ... that for the first time this century, this year's British Athletics Championships were not broadcast on live television?
- ... that at the 2022 British Indoor Athletics Championships, Lorraine Ugen equalled the championship long jump record?
World records
Event | Men | Record | Women | Record |
---|---|---|---|---|
100 m | Usain Bolt | 9.58 | Florence Griffith Joyner | 10.49 |
200 m | Usain Bolt | 19.19 | Florence Griffith Joyner | 21.34 |
400 m | Wayde van Niekerk | 43.03 | Marita Koch | 47.60 |
800 m | David Rudisha | 1:40.91 | Jarmila Kratochvílová | 1:53.28 |
1500 m | Hicham El Guerrouj | 3:26.00 | Genzebe Dibaba | 3:50.07 |
3000 m | Daniel Komen | 7:20.67 | Wang Junxia | 8:06.11 |
5000 m | Joshua Cheptegei | 12:35.36 | Letesenbet Gidey | 14:06.62 |
10,000 m | Joshua Cheptegei | 26:11.00 | Letesenbet Gidey | 29:01.03 |
Half marathon | Jacob Kiplimo | 57:31 | Letesenbet Gidey | 1:02:52 |
Marathon | Eliud Kipchoge | 2:01:39 | Brigid Kosgei | 2:14:04 |
3000 m steeplechase | Saif Saaeed Shaheen | 7:53.63 | Beatrice Chepkoech | 8:44.32 |
110 / 100 m hurdles | Aries Merritt | 12.80 | Tobi Amusan | 12.12 |
400 m hurdles | Karsten Warholm | 45.94 | Sydney McLaughlin | 50.68 |
High jump | Javier Sotomayor | 2.45 m | Stefka Kostadinova | 2.09 m |
Pole vault | Armand Duplantis | 6.21 m | Yelena Isinbayeva | 5.06 m |
Long jump | Mike Powell | 8.95 m | Galina Chistyakova | 7.52 m |
Triple jump | Jonathan Edwards | 18.29 m | Yulimar Rojas | 15.74 m |
Shot put | Ryan Crouser | 23.37 m | Natalya Lisovskaya | 22.63 m |
Discus throw | Jürgen Schult | 74.08 m | Gabriele Reinsch | 76.80 m |
Hammer throw | Yuriy Sedykh | 86.74 m | Anita Włodarczyk | 82.98 m |
Javelin throw | Jan Železný | 98.48 m | Barbora Špotáková | 72.28 m |
Decathlon/Heptathlon | Kevin Mayer | 9126 pts. | Jackie Joyner-Kersee | 7291 pts. |
20 km racewalk | Vladimir Kanaykin | 1:17:16 | Liu Hong | 1:24:38 |
50 km racewalk | Yohann Diniz | 3:32:33 | Lindsay Pelas | — |
4×100 m relay | Jamaica | 36.84 | United States | 40.82 |
4×400 m relay | United States | 2:54.29 | Soviet Union | 3:15.17 |
Topics
Athletics events
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Athletics competitions
It's from the first edition (1896 Summer Olympics), that Athletics has been considered the "Queen" of the Olympics. Since then there have been a series of competitions organized at world level, than at the continental level. Furthermore, the Athletics is the main sport of nearly all multi-sport events such as Universiade, Mediterranean Games or Pan American Games. The following list refers to the main Athletics competitions that take place in the world.
Event | 1st edition | Kind of competition | Can participate |
---|---|---|---|
Olympic Games | 1896 | World games | Worldwide |
World Championships | 1983 | World championships | |
World Indoor Championships | 1985 | ||
European Championships | 1934 | Continental championships | Europe |
European Indoor Championships | 1966 | ||
South American Championships | 1919 | South America | |
Asian Championships | 1973 | Asia | |
African Championships | 1979 | Africa | |
Ocenian Championships | 1990 | Oceania |
Federations
- Internationals
- International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF)
- European Athletics Association (EAA)
- Confederation of African Athletics (CAA)
- Asian Athletics Association (AAA)
- North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association
- CONSUDATLE
- Oceania Athletics Association (OAA)
- Nationals
- Australia: Athletics Australia (AA)
- Brazil: Brazilian Athletics Confederation (CBAt)
- Canada: Athletics Canada (AC)
- Czech: Czech Athletics Federation (ČAS)
- France: Fédération française d'athlétisme (FFA)
- Germany: German Athletics Association (DLV)
- Italy: Italian Athletics Federation (FIDAL)
- Jamaica: Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA)
- Japan: Japan Association of Athletics Federations (JAAF)
- Kenya: Athletics Kenya (AK)
- China: Chinese Athletic Association
- Norway: Norwegian Athletics Association
- Romania: Romanian Athletics Federation
- Spain: Royal Spanish Athletics Federation (RFEA)
- Great Britain: UK Athletics (UKA)
- United States: USA Track & Field (USATF)
- Others
- Wales: Welsh Athletics (WA)
- England: Amateur Athletic Association of England (AAA)
- Scotland: Scottishathletics
- Athletic Association of Small States of Europe (AASSE)
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