Athletics History

Athletics was the original event of the first Olympics in 776 BC where the only event is a race or "stade There are several" Games "held during the era of European classical:

•    Panhellenik Games:

·         The Pythian Games (founded 527 BC) held in Delphi every four years.

·         The Nemean Games (516 BC) held in Argolid every two years.

·         The Isthmian Games (523 BC) held at the Isthmus of Corinth every two years.

•    The Roman Games - Arising from purely Greek roots, the Roman Games deemphasized running and throwing. Rather than train a horse race and wrestle like the Greek, Etruscan sports wear galiatoral battle, who were both wearing nuga stage.

Other peoples enjoyed athletic contests, such as the Celts, Teutons and Goths who succeeded the Romans. However, sports are often associated with combat training. In medieval times the son of a nobleman will be trained in running, fighting and wrestling, and additional riding, archery and weapons training. Contests between rivals and friends are very common on both official and unofficial.

In the 19th century the formal organization of the modern events started. This includes regular sports and exercise into school regimes. Royal Military College at Sandhurst has claimed to use it first in 1812 and 1825 but without any supporting evidence. The oldest meeting was held in Shrewsbury, Shropshire in 1840 by the Royal Shrewsbury School Hunt. There are details of the meeting in a series of letters written 60 years later by CT Robinson who was a pupil there from 1838 until 1841. Royal Military Academy at Woolwich held an organized competition in 1849, but the first regular series of meetings was held at Exeter College, Oxford from 1850.

Modern athletic events are usually organized around a 400m running track on which almost all the events take place. Field events (jumping and throwing) is normally used in place of the track. Athletics was included in the modern Olympics in 1896 and formed the foundations Women were first allowed to participate in track and field events in the Olympics in 1928. An international governing body, the IAAF was founded in 1912. The IAAF established separate outdoor World Championships in 1983. There are some regional games such as the European Championships, the Pan-American Games and Commonwealth Games. In addition there is a professional Golden League circuit, cumulating in the IAAF World Athletics Final and indoor championships such as the World Indoor Championships. The sport has a high profile during major championships, especially the Olympics, but otherwise is less popular.

AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) is the governing body in the United States until it collapsed under pressure from advancing professionalism in the late 1970s. A new body called The Athletic Congress (TAC) was formed, and eventually was named USA Track and Field (USATF or USA T & F). An additional, structural organization with a smaller, Road Runners Club of America (RRCA) also exists in the USA to promote road racing. In modern times, athletes can now receive money from the race, ending called "amateurism" that existed before.

Indoor track and Field

There are two seasons in track and field. There are indoor season, during winter and an outdoor season, run during the spring and summer. Most indoor track is 200 meters and consists of four or six lanes. Often an indoor track will have banked to compensate for the tight bends. In indoor track meet athletes contest the same track events at the outdoor with the exception to run 100m and 110/100m hurdles (replaced by 60 m and 60 m sprint hurdles at most levels and sometimes the 55m sprint and 55m hurdles at the high school level) and run 10 000 m, a brisk walk 300m, and 400m hurdles. Indoor meets also have an additional 3,000 m run normally at the collegiate and elite level instead of the 10,000. 5.000m marathon is an event run by far the most common, although there are situations where longer distances have been raced. In the mid 20th century, there was a series race duel at Madison Square Garden (New York), indoor track, some of which featured two men racing a marathon (26.2 miles). However, this is very rare. In certain circumstances, there is also a 500m race than 400 m normally found outdoors, and on-campus championship indoors both are contested.

In field events, indoor meets only feature the high jump, pole vault, long jump, triple jump and shot put. Sheet javelin, throwing a ball of iron and reject bullets are added only for outdoor meets, there is normally not enough space in an indoor stadium in the competition. Events unique to indoor meets (especially in North America) is there any heavy weight throw 300, 600, 1000 and 35 pounds. In some countries, notably Norway, standing long jump and standing high jump are also contested, even in the National Championships for multi-event athletes there is the Pentathlon for women (ie, 60m hurdles, long jump, starting and 800m) and heptathlon for men (ie 60m hurdles, long jump, starting cartridges, 60m run, pole vault and 1000m run) indoors. For any outdoor heptathlon for women and the decathlon for men. Source :  efransss