Portal:Sport of athletics

Athletics is a group of sporting events that involves competitive running, jumping and throwing. 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...)

World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation and International Association of Athletics Federations and formerly abbreviated as the IAAF, is the international governing body for the sport of athletics, covering track and field, cross country running, road running, race walking, mountain running, and ultra running. Included in its charge is the standardization of rules and regulations for the sports, certification of athletic facilities, recognition and management of world records, and the organisation and sanctioning of athletics competitions, including the World Athletics Championships. The organisation's president is Sebastian Coe of the United Kingdom, who was elected to the four-year position in 2015 and re-elected in 2019 for a second four-year term, and then again in 2023 for a third four-year term. (Full article...)

3 March:

• Simon Biwott, Kenyan distance runner
• Sol Butler, American long jumper
• Craig Dixon, American hurdler
• Martín Fiz, Spanish distance runner
• Vyacheslav Ivanenko, Soviet race walker
• Jackie Joyner-Kersee, American heptathlete and long jumper
• József Kovács, Hungarian distance runner
• Elliott Quow, American sprinter
• Edwin Soi, Kenyan distance runner
• John Thomas, American high jumper
• Fatima Whitbread, British javelin thrower
• Zhang Lirong, Chinese middle- and long-distance runner

• ... that Erica Larson, a chemist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, won the Pikes Peak mountain marathon five times in six years between 1999 and 2004, more than any other woman in the event's history?
• ... that all four deaths in the thirty annual Chicago Marathons have occurred in the last ten years?
• ... that wind assistance has caused the non-ratification of many potential world records in athletics?
• ... that Patrick Ivuti's photo finish victory in the 2007 Chicago Marathon, one of the five major marathons, was his first marathon victory?

Claudia Testoni (19 December 1915 – 17 July 1998), was an Italian hurdler, sprinter and long jumper. She was European champion, in 1938, on 80 metres hurdles. She was born in Bologna and died in Cagliari. (Full article...)

• ... 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 Femke Bol successfully defended her 2021 title by winning the women's 400 metres at the 2023 European Athletics Indoor Championships?
• ... that the men's 100 metres event at the 2023 British Athletics Championships was run in heavy rain?
• ... that the championship record was broken three times in the mixed 4 × 400 metres relay at the 2024 World Athletics Relays?
• ... that Femke Bol won the women's 400 metres hurdles at the 2024 European Athletics Championships in a championship record of 52.49 seconds?
• ... that at the 2022 British Indoor Athletics Championships, Lorraine Ugen equalled the championship long jump record?
• ... that Femke Bol won the women's 400 metres and 400 metres hurdles at the 2022 European Athletics Championships in an unprecedented double victory?
• ... that Mokulubete Makatisi placed eighth at the 2022 Commonwealth Games women's marathon despite running in new shoes that she had received on the eve of the race?

• WikiProject Athletics
• WikiProject Sports
• WikiProject Running

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