Events
See also: List of athletics eventsTrack and field events are divided into three broad categories: track events, field events, and combined events. The majority of athletes tend to specialise in just one event (or event type) with the aim of perfecting their performances, although the aim of combined events athletes is to become proficient in a number of disciplines. Track events involve running on a track over a specified distances and—in the case of the hurdling and steeplechase events—obstacles may be placed on the track. There are also relay races in which teams of athletes run and pass on a baton to their team member at the end of a certain distance.
There are two types of field events: jumps, and throws. In jumping competitions, athletes are judged on either the length or height of their jumps. The performances of jumping events for distance are measured from a board or marker, and any athlete overstepping this mark is judged to have fouled. In the jumps for height, an athlete must clear his or her body over a crossbar without knocking the bar off the supporting standards. The majority of jumping events are unaided, although athletes propel themselves vertically with purpose-built sticks in the pole vault.
The throwing events involve hurling an implement (such as a heavy weight, javelin or discus) from a set point, with athletes being judged on the distance that the object is thrown. Combined events involve the same group of athletes contesting a number of different track and field events. Points are given for their performance in each event and the athlete with the greatest points total at the end of all events is the winner.
| Track | Field | Combined events | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sprints | Middle-distance | Long-distance | Hurdles | Relays | Jumps | Throws | |
| 60 m 100 m 200 m 400 m |
800 m 1500 m 3000 m |
5000 m 10,000 m |
60 m hurdles 100 m hurdles 110 m hurdles 400 m hurdles 3000 m steeplechase |
4×100 m relay 4×400 m relay |
Long jump Triple jump High jump Pole vault |
Shot put Discus throw Hammer throw Javelin throw |
Pentathlon Heptathlon Decathlon |
Read more about this topic: Track And Field
Famous quotes containing the word events:
“Nothing that grieves us can be called little: by the eternal laws of proportion a child’s loss of a doll and a king’s loss of a crown are events of the same size.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“Reporters are not paid to operate in retrospect. Because when news begins to solidify into current events and finally harden into history, it is the stories we didn’t write, the questions we didn’t ask that prove far, far more damaging than the ones we did.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“The system was breaking down. The one who had wandered alone past so many happenings and events began to feel, backing up along the primal vein that led to his center, the beginning of hiccup that would, if left to gather, explode the center to the extremities of life, the suburbs through which one makes one’s way to where the country is.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)