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H PHE 101
MODULE ONE
ATHLETICS
 OVERVIEW
• Athletics is a collection of sports that include
competitions like running, throwing, jumping,
and walking.
• The most common types of athletic competitions
include track and field, road running, cross country
running, and race walking.
• The objective depends on the particular sport, i.e.
running from the starting point to the destination
before the opponents do, vaulting the greatest
height, jumping the greatest distance , throwing or
casting the farthest distance.
• Running, jumping and throwing are natural activities
that people have always enjoyed as recreation or
competition involving tests of speed, strength and
stamina.
• Many athletics events have their roots in contests
dating several centuries ago, with some going back to
the ancient Olympic Games of 776 B.C. in Greece.
• Some like hurdles are much recent, it started during
the rural festivals and games of the last century.
• Modern events have evolved from the early days sports
due to the developments in areas of facilities and
equipment, e.g. raised landing areas has allowed
developments in technique high jump, which
otherwise would have been impossible.
• The Amateur Athletic Association or AAA was
established in England in 1889, as the first national
body for athletics. It began organizing the annual
athletics competition called the AAA Championships.
• The New York Athletic Club of the United States also
started organizing national competitions called the
USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in 1876.
• During the Olympic Games in 1896, an athletic
competition was included as one of the competitions
at the quadrennial multi-sport event. It was organized
for men only.
• In 1928 Olympics, women’s events were introduced
in the athletics program.
• The International Amateur Athletics Federation, IAAF
was founded in 1912 as the international governing
body. It changed its name to the International
Association of Athletics Federations in 2001.
• IAAF established a separate outdoor World
Championship in 1983.
• The first competitions organized internationally for
athletes with physical disabilities (except for deaf),
began in 1952, at the first international Stoke
Mandeville Games organized for the World War II
veterans.
• S.M.G. was for athletes on wheelchairs, It gave birth to
the first Paralympic Games which held in 1960.
 HISTORY OF SPECIFIC EVENTS
• Sprinting is one of the oldest recorded forms of athletic
competition. The Ancient Olympics was almost all sprint
races, e.g.
• the STADE, i.e. the length of the stadium (200 paces);
• the DIALOS: the length of the stadium and back (400 paces;
this dictated the dimensions of the present track 400 paces
or 400 metres); and,
• the DOLICHES, approximately 5,000 metres
• The Throws were believed to have evolved from the hunting
skills of the early men who hurled or cast heavy or pointed
objects at animals.
• The spear-like javelin was used to kill animals, and most
cultures had this as a weapon of war.
• There were evidences that the Hammer came from the
Gaelic games of Ireland, where a chariot wheel was hurled.
• The shot also evolved from tossing the stone in the
Gaelic games and the much recent practice of
soldiers challenging others by putting cannon balls
from the shoulder.
• Jumps also dated back to the Greek Olympics.
• Hurdles were originally sheep hurdles or fences
which were fixed into the ground. The athletes
therefore jumped rather than hurdled the barriers.
• The sport of Athletics has continued to develop with
increase in technology.
 NATURE OF TRACK AND FIELD ATHLETICS
• Track and Field Athletics is a sport which has something
to offer everyone.
• The range and variety of the individual events offers a
place for different body types and different levels of
physical and mental ability.
• The beginning stage of learning athletics is the
exploratory phase, where the athlete is attempts to learn
the correct sequence of movements of all the basic skills
e.g. running, throwing, jumping.
• The intermediate stage is where the basic skills will be
performed more consistently and fluently and an athlete
may now begin to specialise in certain areas.
• At the advanced stage, all the basic skills are automatic and
an athlete may tend to specialise in a specific event for
which he or she is best suited.
• Athletics permits individuals to compete against others, as
is the case during athletics competitions and to compete
against onself e.g. trying to beat one's previous personal
best or time.
• The Track and Field sport has produced several notable
athletes such as;

Hussain Bolt of Jamaica (100m and 200m Olympic

Gold
medalist)
• Ezekiel Kemboi of Kenya who won several titles in 3000m
steeplechase

• Greg Rutherfordof Great Britain (won gold medals in

various championships like 2012 Olympics, 2014
Commonwealth, European Athletics Championship, and
2015 World Athletics Championships).
• Caterine Ibarguen of Columbia (won Gold medals in
high jump, long jump, and triple jump at maany
championships and the Olympics).
THE TRACK AND FIELD STADIUM
 SOME TRACK AND FIELD EQUIPMENT

High Jump Stand and

Starting Blocks Discus Batons
Landing Pad

Starting Block Hurdles Shots

Javelin Shoes Steeplechase Hurdle

EVENTS IN ATHLETICS

• Athletics events are generally classified under three

broad headings:
• Races- racing events that varies in terms of length or
distances;
• Jumps- activities that are scored on the basis of height
vaulted or length jumped
• Throws – events that requires the throwing of missiles
from designated facilities on the field, which are judged
on the basis of distances.
DIAGRAMMATIC OUTLINE OF ATHLETIC EVENTS