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...)

Race Walking Record (abbreviated RWR) is a nonprofit magazine about the sport of race walking, and walking events, primarily aimed at a UK audience. The magazine was founded in London in 1941 by Alf McSweeney in order to keep athletes serving as soldiers in World War II informed about their sport back home. Alf McSweeney was president of the Race Walking Association at the time, and a printer by trade.

Race Walking was a successful Olympic sport for Great Britain at that time. After producing the first issue, the magazine soon became popular. It continues to be produced each month after more than 800 issues in over seventy years. (Full article...)

29 March:

• Ed Archibald, Canadian pole vaulter
• Kim Batten, American hurdler
• Jim Bausch, American decathlete
• Yusuf Saad Kamel, Kenyan-Bahraini middle-distance runner
• Sigrid Kirchmann, Austrian high jumper
• Voula Patoulidou, Greek hurdler
• Djabir Saïd-Guerni, Algerian middle-distance runner
• Steve Smith, British high jumper
• Ivan Ukhov, Russian high jumper

• ... that Amane Gobena is the first Ethiopian runner to win the Osaka Ladies Marathon?
• ... that Oprah Winfrey completed the America's Finest City Half Marathon in 1993, running under a pseudonym and accompanied by a bodyguard, a trainer, and a video crew?
• ... that Sharon Cherop fell over at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon but got back up and ran the fastest marathon ever by a woman in Canada?
• ... that Kenyan athlete Paul Malakwen Kosgei became the World Half Marathon Champion in 2002 despite having never competed in a half marathon before?
• ... that A. K. M. Miraj Uddin set a Pakistani national record in the pole vault by clearing 12 feet 2 inches (3.71 m) with a bamboo pole instead of a carbon-fiber pole?

Juantorena winning the 800 m final at the 1976 Olympics

Alberto Juantorena (born 3 December 1950) is a Cuban former runner. He is the only athlete to win both the 400 and 800 m Olympic titles, which he achieved in 1976. He was ranked as the world's best runner in the 400 m in 1974 and 1976–1978, and in the 800 m in 1976–77, and was chosen as the Track & Field News Athlete of the Year in 1976 and 1977. (Full article...)

• ... that Femke Bol successfully defended her 2021 title by winning the women's 400 metres at the 2023 European Athletics Indoor Championships?
• ... that the championship record was broken three times in the mixed 4 × 400 metres relay at the 2024 World Athletics Relays?
• ... 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 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 at the 2022 British Indoor Athletics Championships, Lorraine Ugen equalled the championship long jump record?
• ... 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 Femke Bol won the women's 400 metres and 400 metres hurdles at the 2022 European Athletics Championships in an unprecedented double victory?
• ... that the men's 100 metres event at the 2023 British Athletics Championships was run in heavy rain?

• WikiProject Athletics
• WikiProject Sports
• WikiProject Running

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