Different Event in Track and Field

Lizzie Thompson, staff writer

Spring track and field just had their tryouts and are going to start practicing next week. While I was listening to people talk about track and field, I realized how many events fall under the subject of track and field.

First, are the most basic of the event, long distance and sprints. The lengths of these races can vary depending on weather it is an indoor or outdoor race. For long outdoor and indoor the distance can range from 800- 3200 meters long. And for sprinting outdoors it ranges from 100- 400 meters and for indoors it is 55- 400 meters. In order to be eligible to race in the sprinting category, you had to run under 14.6 seconds during the 100 meter. To race in the outdoor 400 meter, you had to get 71 seconds. You can also race in a hurdles event, where you have to jump over obstacles in the quickest time. The height of the hurdle can range from 27- 42 inches high. Lastly, there are relays with 4 people on the team.

Those events are considered part of the track section of the sport. The field portion is where it gets more interesting. This portion includes the events: pole vaulting, long jump, high jump, triple jump, and shot put. Pole vaulting is what it sounds like. You have a pole and you use it to catapult yourself over a bar at the end of a runway. In high school pole vaulting you get three tries to clear the end of the runway bar. If you clear it then you go to a higher height to jump over. The next event is high jump, and is similar to pole vaulting, but there is no pole involved. There is also long jumping, where you have to jump as far as you can into a sandpit. Triple jump relate to the long jumping category. Athletes perform a hop, skip and jump and see how far they go. The last of the field events is the shot put. Athletes throw a weight as far as they can from a swinging motion. The average weight used in high school for boys is 5.44 kilograms and 4 kilograms for girls.

Track and field are the kind of sports that build your strength and stamina. Track specifically helps build all of your muscles at the same time. Most of the track events are easier for people who have training in other sports. Like gymnastics for pole vaulting. So it is very easy to pick up. Even if you haven’t done a previous sport, anyone can better themselves at running. The track and field team has had outstanding success among students so it’s not too out of reach to say that it is also going to have an amazing future.