Track and Field

History of Track and Field, Field/ Oval, Types of

Running, Types of Throwing, and
Types of Jumping
OBJECTIVES
• To develop your speed, balance, strength and endurance.

• To provide an opportunity for all students to succeed in track and

field.

• To represent through positive sportsmanship and performance in

track and field.
Track and Field

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 History
• Let us start with the history of track and
field. First race took place at the first
Olympic festival in Rome in 776 B.C.
All the track and field sports started with
Olympics which takes place once in 4
years. Over the centuries new track
competitions started taking place. In the
beginning when Olympic festival was
started it just had four track and field
events like boxing, wrestling and foot
races of varying length.
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MORE TRACK AND FIELD HISTORY
• In 1952, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) sent its first Olympic team ever to the
Summer Games in Helsinki, Finland, where the squad captured several track-and-field
medals. Over the next 30 years, the U.S. and Soviet teams battled in one of the sport’s longest
and most competitive rivalries.
• Beginning in the 1920s, track and field’s scope widened. The first NCAA national
championships were held for men in 1921, and women’s track and field became part of the
Olympic Games in 1928.

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What is Track and field?
• Track and field is a sport which includes athletic contests
established on the skills of running, jumping, and throwing.
• The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running
track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping
events. Track and field is categorized under the umbrella sport
of athletics, which also includes road running, cross country
running, and race walking.

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THE FIRST EVER TRACK RACE
• The ancient Olympic Games began in 776 BC when Koroibos, a cook from a nearby city
of Ellis won the stadium race, a foot race 600 feet long. (600 feet is about 183 meters,
nowadays tracks are 400 meters long.)

• It is heard that before eighteenth century track and field competitions occurred only in
Olympics. After eighteenth century many schools and universities incorporated these
events as daily exercise. Apart from Olympics the first track and field competition was
held in oxford and Cambridge universities in 1864.

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 THE MARATHON
• The marathon was not introduced until the modern Olympic games of
1896 in Athens and was normally 26 miles long. (That is about 42.195
meters long which is about the same as our marathons today are 26.2 miles
long.)

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TRACK AND FIELD
TODAY

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The track:
• It is split into six to ten lanes which circle around an
inner field used for throwing and jumping events.
RUNNING EVENTS

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SPRINT

• Races over short distances, or sprints, are

among the oldest running competitions.

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Middle Distance
• The most common middle-distance track events are the 800
meters, 1500 meters and mile run, although the 3000
meters may also be classified as a middle-distance event.
Long Distance
• There are three common long distance running events in track and field
competitions: 3000 meters, 5000 meters and 10,000 meters. The latter two
races are both Olympic and World Championship events outdoors, while
the 3000 m is held at the IAAF World Indoor Championships.

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Relay Races
• Relay races are the only track and field event in which a team of
runners directly compete against other teams.
• There are two very common relay events: the 4×100 meters
relay and the 4×400 meters relay.

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Hurdling
• Races with hurdles as obstacles were first popularized in the
19th century in England. The first known event, held in 1830,
was a variation of the 100-yard dash that included heavy
wooden barriers as obstacles.

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STARTING BLOCK
• Device made up of two adjustable pedals that allow
sprinters to give themselves momentum during a start.

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JUMPING EVENTS

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Long Jump
• The long jump is one of the oldest track and field events, having
its roots as one of the events within the ancient Greek
pentathlon contest. The athletes would take a short run up and
jump into an area of dug up earth, with the winner being the one
who jumped farthest.

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Triple Jump
• Similar to the long jump, the triple jump takes place on a track
heading towards a sandpit. Originally, athletes would hop on the
same leg twice before jumping into the pit, but this was changed
to the current "hop, step and jump" pattern from 1900 onwards.

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High Jump
• The first recorded instances of high jumping
competitions were in Scotland in the 19th
century. Further competitions were
organized in 1840 in England and in 1865
the basic rules of the modern event were
standardized there.
• Athletes have a short run up and then take
off from one foot to jump over a horizontal
bar and fall back onto a cushioned landing
area. The men's high jump was included in
the 1896 Olympics and a women's
competition followed in 1928.

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Pole Vault
• In terms of sport, the use of poles for
vaulting distances was recorded
in Fierljeppen contests in the Frisian area of
Europe, and vaulting for height was seen
at gymnastics competitions in Germany in
the 1770s.
• The modern event sees athletes run down a
strip of track, plant the pole in the metal
box, and vault over the horizontal bar before
letting go of the pole and falling backwards
onto the landing mattress.

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THROWING EVENTS

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Shot Put
• The genesis of the shot put can be traced to
pre-historic competitions with rocks
• The term "shot" originates from the use
of round shot-style ammunition for the sport.
The modern rules were first laid out in 1860
and required that competitors take legal throws
within a square throwing area of seven feet
(2.13 m) on each side. This was amended to a
circle area with a seven-foot diameter in 1906,
and the weight of the shot was standardized to
16 pounds (7.26 kg).
Discus Throw
• In the discus throw, athletes compete to
throw a heavy disc the farthest. In
standard competitions, athletes throw the
disc from a set circular arc and take turns
in a series of throw, with the singular
best effort deciding the victor.
• The discus implement was standardized
to 2 kg (4.4 pounds) in weight and 22 cm
(8 inches) in diameter in 1907.

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Javelin Throw
• The javelin throw is a track and field event where
the javelin, a spear about 2.5 m (8 ft. 2 in) in
length, is thrown. The javelin thrower
gains momentum by running within a
predetermined area. Javelin throwing is an event of
both the men's decathlon and the
women's heptathlon.

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Hammer Throw
• is one of the four throwing events in
regular track and field competitions,
along with the discus throw, shot
put and javelin. The "hammer" used in
this sport is not like any of the tools
also called by that name. It consists of
a metal ball attached by a steel wire to
a grip. The size of the ball varies
between men's and women's
competitions.

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Mixed Event

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DECATHLON
• Is a combined event in athletics consisting of ten track
and field events.

• The decathlon is contested mainly by male athletes,

while female athletes typically compete in
the heptathlon.

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HEPTATHLON
• Is a track and field combined events contest made up
of seven events.
• There are two heptathlons – the women's heptathlon
and the men's – composed of different events. The
men's heptathlon is older and is held indoors, while the
women's is held outdoors and was introduced in the
1980s, first appearing in the Olympics in 1984.

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PENTATHLON
• In the sport of athletics, pentathlons have taken
various forms over the history of the sport,
typically incorporating five track and field events.
The only version of the event to remain at a high
level of contemporary competition is the women's
indoor pentathlon, which is present on the
programmed for the IAAF World Indoor
Championships.
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The End

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