Technical details
Track events - All competitors for track races up to 400m use starting blocks which are wired to detect false starts.
All events take place in an anti-clockwise direction and for races up to and including the 400m each athlete has a separate lane which they must stay in for
the entire race.
There are staggered starts for the 200m, 400m, 800m, 400m hurdles and the
4x400m relays, to take into account the curvature of the track.
In the 800m competitors run in their lanes as far as the end of the first
bend, when they break for the inside lane.
In close finishes the winner of a race is the athlete whose body crosses the
line first. By body, the rules mean torso as distinguished from the head, arms,
neck, legs, hands or feet.
In hurdles, athletes can knock over any number of hurdles without being
disqualified, provided they are judged not to have done so deliberately.
Field events - a no-throw is registered if an athlete steps out of the
throwing circle (or across the throwing line in the javelin). Athletes have
three throws in which to qualify for the final.
Competitors in the walking events must retain unbroken contact with the
ground, that is the front foot must touch the ground before the back foot is lifted.
In the high jump, a starting height is chosen and after that height is cleared, the bar is raised at pre-designated levels. Competitors decide at which
height to enter the competition. After a failure at one height, athletes can forego the other two attempts and move on to the next height. Competitors are
eliminated if they fail in three consecutive attempts to clear the height. The winner is the athlete who jumps the highest and in the case of athletes
recording the same height a 'count back' system determines the winner and other placings.
Athletes in the long and triple jumps have three attempts to reach the final of 12. A no-jump is registered if a competitor's take-off foot goes over the
board, if they land outside the pit and if they do any sort of somersaulting.
The two combined events - decathlon for men and heptathlon for women - are decided by a points system, with points attributed for each performance.
Five facts
1) Athletics has its origins in antiquity. Records of foot races and throwing
competitions date back as far as the 13th Century BC as part of the Ancient
Olympic Games. These events were for men only - women could not even watch.
Women's events first appeared at the Olympic Games in 1928 and consisted of
only five track events, plus discus and high jump. This programme did not change
until 1972.
2) Linford Christie at 32, became the oldest 100m champion in history to win
Olympic gold, at Barcelona in 1992.
3) British women athletes won 12 silver medals before the first gold was won
by Mary Rand in Tokyo (1964) in the long jump and Ann Packer who won the 800m at
the same Games.
4) Sebastian Coe won the gold medal for 1,500m in 1980 and 1984 and during his
career set 11 world records.
5) Since the first Games in 1896, Great Britain has won a total of 47 gold, 78
silver and 53 bronze medals in athletics. Some of these are for events which are
now discontinued.
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