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ATHLETICS History - Discipline's Origin Athletics, or track and field, is the original Olympic sport. The first event contested in the ancient Olympics was the stade race, a sprint of about 192 metres. Recorded victors in this event are known as far back as 776 BC. Other athletics events in the ancient Olympics included longer foot races, a race in armour, and a pentathlon event that consisted of the stade race, long jump, discus throw, javelin throw and wrestling. Similar events were held in ancient Greece at the Isthmian, Nemean and Pythian Games. Throughout recorded sports history, athletics has always been practised. Many of the attempted revivals of the Olympics in the 19th century consisted mostly of athletics contests. In Europe, local fairs and festivals often included running, jumping and throwing events. In Ireland and Scotland, these developed into organised sets of Tailteann and Highland Games, respectively. Olympic History Since the revival of the modern Olympics, athletics has been the most publicised sport on the Olympic programme. Today, athletics is rivalled only by football (soccer), basketball and volleyball as the most practised sport. There are basically six "categories" within track and field athletics: running, hurdling, walking, jumping, throwing and multi-events. Each of the categories include several different events, now fairly standardised throughout the world. Track and field athletics has been held at every Olympics since 1896. Women's track and field athletics began at the 1928 Olympics and has been contested ever since. Although the men's programme has varied it has become fairly standardised since 1932. In addition, although women were first allowed to compete in only a few events, today they have a programme of almost the same events as the men. For the Beijing Olympic Games, with the introduction of a steeplechase for women, the only differences in the men's and women's programmes are that the men have two walks (20km and 50km) and the women only one (20km), the distance for the women's high hurdles race is 100 metres and for the men's 110 metres, and the women compete in a heptathlon, while the men compete in the decathlon. The United States' men were historically the top nation in the world in track and field athletics, although European nations were also dominant. Among the women, the Soviet Union and the GDR (East Germany) were the top powers prior to the dissolution of those two nations. These days, the United States continue to dominate in the sprints, hurdles and horizontal jumps although athletes from the Caribbean region are now challenging them strongly. The African nations, notably Kenya, Ethiopia, and Morocco, are now the dominant forces in the distance running events. Competition Athletics can be divided into four areas: track, field, road and combined events. Track events Include sprints (100m, 200m, 400m), middle-distance running (800m,1500m) and long-distance running (5000m, 10,000m), hurdling (100m and 400m for women, 110m and 400m for men), relays (4 x 100m and 4 x 400m) and the 3000m steeplechase. Field events For both men and women, include the long jump, triple jump, high jump, pole vault, shot put, discus, javelin and hammer throw. The women's pole vault and hammer throw debuted at the Sydney 2000 Games. Road events Consist of the men's and women's marathons, the men's 20km and 50km race walks and the women's 10km race walk. Combined events The heptathlon for women and the decathlon for men - athletes compete in a series of track and field events over two days. Points are based upon their finishes in each event, and the person with the most points wins.

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List Of Events • 10000m Men • 10000m Women • 100m Men • 100m Women • 110m hurdles Men • 100m hurdles Women • 1500m Men • 1500m Women • 200m Men • 200m Women • 20km walk Men • 20km race walk Women • 3000m steeplechase Men • 3000m steeplechase Women • 400m Men • 400m Women • 400m hurdles Men • 400m hurdles Women • 4x100m relay Men • 4x100m relay Women • 4x400m relay Men • 4x400m relay Women • 5000m Men • 5000m Women • 50km walk Men • 800m Men • 800m Women • decathlon Men • heptathlon Women • discus throw Men • discus throw Women • hammer throw Men • hammer throw Women • high jump Men • high jump Women • javelin throw Men • javelin throw Women • long jump Men • long jump Women • marathon Men • marathon Women • pole vault Men • pole vault Women • shot put Men • shot put Women • triple jump Men • triple jump Women A S I A N A T H L E T I C S H I S T O R Y The Asian Track and Field Championships were originally planned at the 1962 Asian Games through the initiative of Major General Aziz Salleh the Chief of the Indonesian Federation (PASI), but went a-begging by the "emergence" of the ill conceived first and last Games of the Emerging Forces (GANEFO). The idea to hold the Championships was revived by the Malaysian A.A.U. President, Tan Sri Mohamed Ghazali Shafie, at the 1966 Asian Games at Bangkok, which again met no better fate as circumstances outside the control of athletics idealist intervened. At the 1970 Asian Games, the Punjab State Sports Minister, Sardar Umrao Singh, took up the Challenge and plans for the First Asian Championships at Delhi were finalized with Mr. R.L. Anand appointed Director of the Organisation when political developments in the sub-Continent thrust the plans not only out of gear but out of sight for another two years. However, they kept up the tempo and though unable to hold the Championships, they called for a meeting of the Asian Athletic Team officials at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. It was there that Governor Jose C. Sering, President of the Philippines Track and Field Association (PATAFA) took up the challenge and history was made when the First Asian Track and Field Championships got off the launching pad and was held at the Marikina Stadium near Manila in November 1973. The Constitution of the Asian Amateur Athletic Association and the Rules governing the Asian Track and Field Championships were ratified as amended at the First Asian AAA Congress Meeting at Manila, Philippines, in November, 20-21, 1973 and Governor Jose C. Sering became the first President of the properly constituted Asian Amateur Athletic Association and Mr. Maurice R. Nicholas, the first Secretary-General. The Asian AAA Constitution was presented at the 29th Congress of the International Amateur Athletic Federation held in Rome in August 29-31, 1974, and was accepted after a vote was taken. At the 14rth Congress of Asian Amateur Athletic Association (AAAA) in Aug 2002, in Colombo, it was decided to change the name of the association to Amateur Athletics Association (AAA).