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...)

The 2010 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships was held in Nanning, China on 16 October 2010. The competition took place on the city streets, beginning and ending at Wuxiang Square, with a total prize purse of US$245,000 at stake.

The Kenyan athletes emerged with both the individual and team titles in the men's and women's races. Despite limited experience in top level half marathon races, Wilson Kiprop and Florence Kiplagat won their respective races. Kiprop broke Zersenay Tadese's winning streak which dated back to 2006, out-sprinting the defending champion in the final stages. Sammy Kitwara won the men's bronze medal and helped Kenya to the men's team title. Led by Zersenay, the Eritrean men beat Ethiopia to the team silver medal spot.

A total of 30 countries were represented at the 19th edition of the competition and 123 runners altogether were entered into the men's and women's races. The event was the final edition to be held on an annual schedule, as the competition switched to a biennial format for the 2012 championships. (Full article...)

16 April:

• Lars Börgeling, German pole vaulter
• Gordon Dunn, American discus thrower
• John Norton, American hurdler
• Yelena Prokhorova, Russian heptathlete
• Jiří Skobla, Czechoslovakian shot putter
• Kerron Stewart, Jamaican sprinter

• ... 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?

Iolanda Balaș (Romanian pronunciation: [joˈlanda ˈbalaʃ], Hungarian: Balázs Jolán, later Balázs-Sőtér Jolán; 12 December 1936 – 11 March 2016) was a Romanian athlete, an Olympic champion and former world record holder in the high jump. She was the first Romanian woman to win an Olympic gold medal and is considered to have been one of the greatest high jumpers of the twentieth century. (Full article...)

This section is an excerpt from Iolanda Balaș § Career.[]

Balaș took up athletics owing to her caretaker Luisa Ernst, who was also a retired high jumper.^[1] In 1953 she transferred from Timișoara club "Electrica" to CCA (CSA Steaua). After finishing fifth in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, she won Olympic gold medals at Rome in 1960 (becoming the first Romanian woman to do so)^[2] and Tokyo in 1964. At the 1964 Olympics she competed with a torn tendon, which forced her later to withdraw from the 1966 European Championships. Nevertheless, between 1957 and 1966, Balaș won 154 consecutive competitions,^[3] not including qualifying competitions or exhibitions. She improved the world record 14 times, from 1.75 m to 1.91 m, and equalled it once outdoors and once indoors. She was the first woman to jump over six feet. Her technique was a sophisticated version of the scissors technique.^[1]

Balaș won two British WAAA Championships high jump titles at the 1962 WAAA Championships^[4] and the 1963 WAAA Championships.^[5][6]

• ... 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 the men's 100 metres event at the 2023 British Athletics Championships was run in heavy rain?
• ... 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 won the women's 400 metres and 400 metres hurdles at the 2022 European Athletics Championships in an unprecedented double victory?
• ... that Femke Bol successfully defended her 2021 title by winning the women's 400 metres at the 2023 European Athletics Indoor Championships?
• ... 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?
• ... that four-time NAIA scoring champion Grace Beyer has scored more career points than any female basketball player at a four-year college or university?

• WikiProject Athletics
• WikiProject Sports
• WikiProject Running

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