Top Three Athletic Disciplines

With the Olympic games finally taking place in Tokyo after the cancellation of last year’s games due to the pandemic, many people have suddenly taken interest in sports whether it be betting online with the bet365 bonus code or watching and keeping up with the games. No matter where you are in the world, there are always some games going on, whether it’s tennis, swimming, athletics, you name it! The fun part is that you don’t really have to know anything about the sports game you’re watching, as it’s likely that the commentator will explain everything to you, but for those of you who are interested in learning a little bit more about some of the disciplines, stick to this blog! Today, we will be discussing different athletics disciplines. Hopefully, after reading this section, you will be “the commentator” for the people you’re watching the games with.  

Track and field

Track and field is an athletic discipline that combines running, jumping, and throwing. There are three types of events that one can choose from; track events (named after the running track – the court people run on), field events, and combined events. With the track events, you may be running different distances (from 60m – 400m in sprints, 800m – 3km in middle-distance, and 5km – 10km in long-distance), jumping over the obstacles on the track, or even passing the baton to the next person from your team. There are two types of field events and they are jumping and throwing. With jumping, your goal is to reach the longest or the highest jump, and with throwing, your goal is to hurl an object to the farthest point. Combined events are exactly what their name says – they combine all the athletes performing on track and field events. Their goal is to obtain maximum points in order to win. Consequently, it’s important to say that track and field discipline is both for individual participation and teams.

Road running

Although people think that road running is the same as track running, it’s important to note that these two disciplines are different. Namely, road running takes place on a road (not a track) and it’s very accessible – everyone can do it and train for it, even people who are not able-bodied. With road running, contestants will be running long-distance, and they will have to cross either 5km or even up to 42km (when running a marathon)! Road running is an individual discipline.

Cross country running

Cross country running is another athletic discipline that focuses on running, but in the context of running, it focuses on running over natural terrain. This means that there is no court or a clear road for the runners; they can be running over dirt and grass, woods, and across the country! To know which way to run on the natural terrain, contestants rely on markings that can be found on the course, which can be either colored tape or ribbons on both left and right sides of the terrain.

Interestingly, cross country running doesn’t take place in the summer or spring; it takes place in autumn or winter, in rather rigid conditions including rain or snow and low temperatures. Cross country running can both be for individuals and teams.