Athletics

ATHLETICS

Athletics Rules

Athletics is the collective name for a collection of sporting events that involve competitors running, throwing, walking and jumping. The roots of athletic events are prehistoric, with ancient communities competing with each other in various running, jumping and throwing events.
Athletic events were prevalent in the ancient Olympics in Greece, starting originally with just a running race and gratefully expanding over time to include various running, jumping and throwing events. To this day, success at the Olympic Games is still seen as the pinnacle of achievement in the sport of Athletics – although there also World Championships and various national and continental championships both indoors and outdoors.

Men's Athletics

Women's Athletics

Modern day men's athletics includes the following activities:

100 metres
200 metres
400 metres
800 metres
1500 metres
5000 metres
10,000 metres
Marathon
110 metres hurdles
400 metres hurdles
3000 metres steeplechase
4 × 100 metres relay
4 × 400 metres relay
20 kilometres race walk
50 kilometres race walk
High jump
Pole vault
Long jump
Triple jump
Shot put
Discus throw
Hammer throw
Javelin throw
Decathlon

Modern day women's’ athletics include:

100 metres
200 metres
400 metres
800 metres
1500 metres
5000 metres
10,000 metres
Marathon
100 metres hurdles
400 metres hurdles
3000 metres steeplechase
4 × 100 metres relay
4 × 400 metres relay
20 kilometres race walk
Pole vault
Long jump
Triple jump
Shot put
Discus throw
Hammer throw
Javelin throw
Heptathlon

The objective in all athletics disciplines is to win the event. Depending upon the event, this involves running or walking faster, throwing further, jumping higher or jumping further than your competitors. For decathlon and heptathlon events which feature multiple athletic events, the objective is to collect as many points by performing as well as possible in each separate event.

Players & Equipment

The basic equipment for athletics consists of a vest, shorts and training shoes. Some events require specific pieces of equipment as follows:

Pole Vault: Pole
Shot Put: Shot
Discus Throw: Discus
Hammer Throw: Hammer
Javelin Throw: Javelin
Hurdles: Hurdles

Winning
For running and walking events, this involves completing the race in the quickest time possible. For throwing events, it involves throwing the furthest and, in jumping events, it involves jumping further or higher than your competitors (depending upon the particular event). In athletics, winners are given a gold medal, those who are second are given a silver medal and bronze medals are given to those who come third. Those athletes finishing outside of the top three are not awarded.

Scoring

Winning

The only events in athletics that have any sort of scoring (in the traditional sense of the word) are decathlon and heptathlon. Because these are multi activity events, competitors are awarded points for their performance in each event. At the end of the competition, the athlete with the most amount of points is awarded the gold medal.

With all other events, there are no points. Everyone is ranked on how fast they ran/walked, height or length they jumped or how far they threw.

For running and walking events, this involves completing the race in the quickest time possible. For throwing events, it involves throwing the furthest and, in jumping events, it involves jumping further or higher than your competitors (depending upon the particular event).

In athletics, winners are given a gold medal, those who are second are given a silver medal and bronze medals are given to those who come third. Those athletes finishing outside of the top three are not awarded.

Rules of Athletics

Each individual discipline has its own specific set of rules and competitors are expected to abide by these to ensure that the competition is fair.