Cross country running
Cross country running is a sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. Sometimes the runners are referred to as harriers; the course 4–12 kilometres long, may include surfaces of grass, earth, pass through woodlands and open country, include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road. It is both a team sport. Both men and women of all ages compete in cross country, which takes place during autumn and winter, can include weather conditions of rain, snow or hail, a wide range of temperatures. Cross country running is one of the disciplines under the umbrella sport of athletics, is a natural terrain version of long-distance track and road running. Although open-air running competitions are pre-historic, the rules and traditions of cross country racing emerged in Britain; the English championship became the first national competition in 1876 and the International Cross Country Championships was held for the first time in 1903. Since 1973 the foremost elite competition has been the IAAF World Cross Country Championships.
Cross country courses are laid out on an woodland area. The IAAF recommends that courses be grass-covered, have rolling terrain with frequent but smooth turns. Courses consist of one or more loops, with a long straight at the start and another leading to the finish line. Terrain can vary from open fields to forest hills and across rivers, it includes running down and up hills. Because of variations in conditions, international standardization of cross country courses is impossible, not desirable. Part of cross country running's appeal is the distinct characteristics of each venue's terrain and weather, as in other outdoor sports like motor racing and golf. According to the IAAF, an ideal cross country course has a loop of 1,750 to 2,000 metres laid out on an open or wooded land, it should be covered by grass, as much as possible, include rolling hills "with smooth curves and short straights". While it is acceptable for local conditions to make dirt or snow the primary surface, courses should minimize running on roads or other macadamized paths.
Parks and golf courses provide suitable locations. While a course may include natural or artificial obstacles, cross country courses support continuous running, do not require climbing over high barriers, through deep ditches, or fighting through the underbrush, as do military-style assault courses. A course at least 5 metres full allows competitors to pass others during the race. Clear markings keep competitors from making wrong turns, spectators from interfering with the competition. Markings may include tape or ribbon on both sides of the course, chalk or paint on the ground, or cones; some classes use colored flags to indicate directions: red flags for left turns, yellow flags for right turns, blue flags to continue straight or stay within ten feet of the flag. Courses commonly include distance markings at each kilometer or each mile; the course should have 400 to 1,200 m of level terrain before the first turn, to reduce contact and congestion at the start. However, many courses at smaller competitions have their first turn after a much shorter distance.
Courses for international competitions consist of a loop between 2000 meters. Athletes complete three to six loops, depending on the race. Senior men compete on a 12-kilometre course. Senior women and junior men compete on an 8-kilometre course. Junior women compete on a 6-kilometre course. In the United States, college men compete on 8 km or 10 km courses, while college women race for 5 km or 6 km. High school courses are 5 km. Middle school courses are 1.5 mi or 2 mi long. All runners start at the same time, from a starting arc marked with lines or boxes for each team or individual. An official, 50 meters or more in front of the starting line, fires a pistol to indicate the start. If runners collide and fall within the first 100 meters, officials can call the runners back and restart the race, however this is done only once. Crossing the line or starting before the starting pistol is fired is considered a false start and most results in disqualification of the runner; the course ends at a finish line located at the beginning of a funnel or chute that keeps athletes single-file in order of finish and facilitates accurate scoring.
Depending on the timing and scoring system, finish officials may collect a small slip from each runner's bib, to keep track of finishing positions. An alternative method is to have four officials in two pairs. In the first pair, one official reads out numbers of finishers and the other records them. In the second pair, one official reads out times for the other to record. At the end of the race, the two lists are joined along with information from the entry information; the primary disadvantage of this system is that distractions can upset the results when scores of runners finish close together. Chip timing has grown in popularity to increase accuracy and decrease the number of officials required at the finish line; each runner attaches a transponder with RFID to her shoe. When the runner crosses the finish line, an electronic pad records the chip number and matches the runner to a database. Chip timing allows officials to use checkpoint mats throughout the race to calculate split times, to ensure runners cover the entire course.
This is by far the most efficient method, although it is t
Jouko Kuha
Jouko Santeri Kuha is a Finnish former long-distance runner, who specialized in the 3000 metres steeplechase. In 1968 he broke the World record with a result of 8:24.2. Kuha's international breakthrough was at the Finland-Sweden athletics international in 1965 when he beat Bengt Persson with the Finnish record of 8:37.6. In the same year he was ranked ninth at the annual ranking of Field News. At the 1966 European Championships in Budapest Kuha ran a new Finnish record of 8:36.2 in the heats, but did not qualify for the final. Kuha realized that in order to reach the world's top he would be forced to leave Finland's winter conditions and conduct his training in warmer climates, he was the first Finnish runner to train in foreign countries, thus becoming a trendsetter for Finnish runners who had success in the 1970s. In 1967 Kuha improved his Finnish record with a time of 8:29.8 in Stockholm, that season's second best time in the world after Gaston Roelants. In the same year he won the 3000 metres steeplechase at the Universiades in Tokyo.
He ranked fifth in Track and Field News' annual world ranking in 1967. He prepared to spend the summer of 1968 training in the village of Penedo in Brazil; that year, he set a world record on 17 July in Stockholm. His 1000 metres lap time was only 2:51.0, 1500 metres 4:17.2, 2000 metres 5:43.2. However, Kuha was known for his fast final laps and again he sprinted to a world record time of 8:24.2, over 2 seconds faster than the previous record by Gaston Roelants. Kuha knew that as a sea-level inhabitant he would not succeed at the high altitude of Mexico City and therefore he did not travel to the 1968 Summer Olympics, he ranked tenth in Track and Field News' annual world ranking in 1968. Kuha's top season ended after Achilles tendon surgery in 1969, he still continued his career at the national level and competed at the Finnish Championships in Athletics at the age of 40 in 1980. Kuha's world record was threatened to be disqualified, because competition organizers provided bib numbers with the BP logo, against amateur athletic's rules in that era.
Kuha did not earn much money during his career. One week after setting the world record, he competed in Joensuu before well over 6000 spectators. Kuha had agreed to a fee the previous spring of 600 Finnish markkas, which corresponds to 824 Euros in 2008 currency. During his career 1958–95 Kuha ran the 3000 metres steeplechase 170 times. At the age of 41 he ran with a time of 9:00.61 and at about two months prior to his 50th birthday in 1989, 9:37.79. Tilastopaja profile for Jouko Kuha Track & Field News Men's World Rankings, 1947-2002
Steeplechase (athletics)
The steeplechase is an obstacle race in athletics, which derives its name from the steeplechase in horse racing. The foremost version of the event is the 3000 metres steeplechase; the 2000 metres steeplechase is the next most common distance. The 1900 Olympics featured a 2500 metres steeplechase and a 4000 metres steeplechase, a 2590 metres steeplechase was held at the 1904 Olympics. A 1000 metres steeplechase is used in youth athletics; the event originated in Ireland. Horses and riders raced from one town's steeple to the next; the steeples were used as markers due to their visibility over long distances. Along the way runners had to jump streams and low stone walls separating estates; the modern athletics event originates from a two-mile cross country steeplechase that formed part of the University of Oxford sports in 1860. It was replaced in 1865 by an event over barriers on a flat field, which became the modern steeplechase, it has been an Olympic event since the inception of the modern Olympics, though with varying lengths.
Since the 1968 Summer Olympics, steeplechase in the Olympics has been dominated by Kenyan athletes, including the current gold medal streak since 1984 and a clean sweep of the medals at the 1992 and 2004 Games. The steeplechase for women is 3,000 metres long, but with lower barriers than for the men. A distance of 2,000 metres, with a shorter water jump, was experimented with before the current race format was established, it made its first major championship appearance at the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki. In 2008, women's 3,000 metres steeplechase appeared for the first time on the Olympic tracks in Beijing. Other divisions including masters athletics and youth athletics run 2,000 metres distances; the format for a 2,000 metre steeplechase removes the first two barriers of the first lap. The steeplechase at the 1932 Olympics was run over 3460 metres due to a lap scoring error. A 3,000 metres steeplechase is defined in the rulebook as having seven water jumps. A 2,000 meters steeplechase has five water jumps.
Since the water jump is never on the track oval, a steeplechase "course" is never a perfect 400 metres lap. Instead the water jump is placed inside the turn, shortening the lap, or outside the turn, lengthening the lap; the start line moves from conventional starting areas in order to compensate for the different length of lap. When the water jump is inside, the 3,000 metre start line is on the backstretch; when the water jump is outside, the 3,000 metre start line is on the home stretch. The 2,000 metre start line uses 5/7 the amount of compensation. IAAF list of steeplechase records in XML Women's Steeplechase
Zdzisław Krzyszkowiak
Zdzisław Ludwik Krzyszkowiak was a Polish track and field athlete, winner of the 3000 metre steeplechase at the 1960 Summer Olympics. Born in Wielichowo, Greater Poland Voivodeship, Krzyszkowiak won 13 Polish National Championship titles in long-distance and cross-country events. Krzyszkowiak rose to the international athletics scene at the 1956 Summer Olympics, where he missed the bronze medal in the 10,000 metres by 7.4 seconds, finishing fourth. At the 1958 European Championships in Athletics, Krzyszkowiak established himself as one of the best European long distance runners by winning both the 5000 and 10,000 metres. Just two months before the Rome Olympics, Krzyszkowiak ran his first world record, clocking 8:31.4 in the 3000 m steeplechase. At the Olympics itself, Krzyszkowiak finished seventh in the 10,000 m, but won, as a main favourite, the 3000 m steeplechase. After the Olympics, Krzyszkowiak decided to concentrate on the 3000 m steeplechase event, running his second world record in 1961, but was forced to retire from sports prematurely in 1963 due to injuries.
After his running career, he worked as a coach. Zdzisław Krzyszkowiak died in Warsaw, aged 73. Zdzisław Krzyszkowiak Stadium in Bydgoszcz was named in his honor
Marathon
The marathon is a long-distance race, completed by running, walking, or a run/walk strategy. There are wheelchair divisions; the marathon has an official distance of 42.195 kilometres run as a road race. The event was instituted in commemoration of the fabled run of the Greek soldier Pheidippides, a messenger from the Battle of Marathon to Athens, who reported the victory; the marathon was one of the original modern Olympic events in 1896, though the distance did not become standardized until 1921. More than 800 marathons are held throughout the world each year, with the vast majority of competitors being recreational athletes, as larger marathons can have tens of thousands of participants; the name Marathon comes from the legend of the Greek messenger. The legend states that he was sent from the battlefield of Marathon to Athens to announce that the Persians had been defeated in the Battle of Marathon, which took place in August or September, 490 BC, it is said that he ran the entire distance without stopping and burst into the assembly, exclaiming νενικήκαμεν, before collapsing and dying.
The account of the run from Marathon to Athens first appears in Plutarch's On the Glory of Athens in the 1st century AD, which quotes from Heraclides Ponticus's lost work, giving the runner's name as either Thersipus of Erchius or Eucles. Satirist Lucian of Samosata first gives an account closest to the modern version of the story, but is writing tongue in cheek, names the runner Philippides. There is debate about the historical accuracy of this legend; the Greek historian Herodotus, the main source for the Greco-Persian Wars, mentions Philippides as the messenger who ran from Athens to Sparta asking for help, ran back, a distance of over 240 kilometres each way. In some Herodotus manuscripts, the name of the runner between Athens and Sparta is given as Philippides. Herodotus makes no mention of a messenger sent from Marathon to Athens, relates that the main part of the Athenian army, having fought and won the grueling battle, fearing a naval raid by the Persian fleet against an undefended Athens, marched back from the battle to Athens, arriving the same day.
In 1879, Robert Browning wrote the poem Pheidippides. Browning's poem, his composite story, became part of late 19th century popular culture and was accepted as a historic legend. Mount Pentelicus stands between Marathon and Athens, which means that if Philippides made his famous run after the battle, he had to run around the mountain, either to the north or to the south; the latter and more obvious route matches exactly the modern Marathon-Athens highway, which follows the lay of the land southwards from Marathon Bay and along the coast takes a gentle but protracted climb westwards towards the eastern approach to Athens, between the foothills of Mounts Hymettus and Penteli, gently downhill to Athens proper. This route, as it existed when the Olympics were revived in 1896, was 40 kilometres long, this was the approximate distance used for marathon races. However, there have been suggestions that Philippides might have followed another route: a westward climb along the eastern and northern slopes of Mount Penteli to the pass of Dionysos, a straight southward downhill path to Athens.
This route is shorter, 35 kilometres, but includes a steep initial climb of more than 5 kilometres. When the modern Olympics began in 1896, the initiators and organizers were looking for a great popularizing event, recalling the glory of ancient Greece; the idea of a marathon race came from Michel Bréal, who wanted the event to feature in the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 in Athens. This idea was supported by Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympics, as well as by the Greeks; the Greeks staged a selection race for the Olympic marathon on 22 March 1896, won by Charilaos Vasilakos in 3 hours and 18 minutes. The winner of the first Olympic marathon, on 10 April 1896, was Spyridon Louis, a Greek water-carrier, in 2 hours 58 minutes and 50 seconds; the marathon of the 2004 Summer Olympics was run on the traditional route from Marathon to Athens, ending at Panathinaiko Stadium, the venue for the 1896 Summer Olympics. That men's marathon was won by Italian Stefano Baldini in 2 hours 10 minutes and 55 seconds, a record time for this route until the non-Olympics Athens Classic Marathon of 2014, when Felix Kandie lowered the course record to 2 hours 10 minutes and 37 seconds.
The women's marathon was introduced at the 1984 Summer Olympics and was won by Joan Benoit of the United States with a time of 2 hours 24 minutes and 52 seconds. It has become a tradition for the men's Olympic marathon to be the last event of the athletics calendar, on the final day of the Olympics. For many years the race finished inside the Olympic stadium; the men's marathon medals are awarded during the closing ceremony. The Olympic men's record is 2:06:32, set at the 2008 Summer Olympics by Samuel Kamau Wanjiru of Kenya; the Olympic women's record is 2:23:07, set at the 2012 Summer Olympics by Tiki Gelana
George Orton
George Washington Orton was a Canadian middle and long-distance runner. In 1900, he became the first Canadian to win a medal at an Olympic Games, he won a bronze in the 400 metre hurdles, 45 minutes won the gold medal in the 2500 metre steeplechase. Born in Strathroy, Orton was paralyzed when he fell out of a tree at the age of 3, he had suffered a blood clot on the brain, had damaged his right arm. He could not walk until age 10, regained his mobility around age 12. Orton did his undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto, earning a B. A. in 1893 in Romance Languages. He was offered a scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania in 1893 to complete his Masters and Ph. D.in Philosophy. By he was the top middle-distance runner in the world, he won a then-record 17 national titles in the United States, along with 7 in Canada, one in the United Kingdom. He won the U. S. one-mile championship 6 times, the two-mile steeplechase 7 times steeplechase, the Cross Country twice, the five-mile run and the ten-mile run.
While a student at the University of Toronto in 1892, Orton set a mile record of 4:21.8 which lasted for 42 years. In total, he won 131 races, including a staggering 33 International championships; the crowning achievement of Orton's career was the 1900 Summer Olympics, held in Paris. Orton competed in three official Olympic events: two steeplechase competitions and the 400m hurdles, he competed in several other events that were "handicap" races and not recognized by the IOC. Orton had to give up either time or distance to inferior runners in these events, having been punished by the handicapper because of his success on the track, he won a bronze medal in the 400m hurdles. 45 minutes suffering from an intestinal virus, Orton won the gold medal in the 2500m steeplechase, setting a world record of 7:34.4. The next day, still ill, he placed fifth in the 4000m steeplechase. Unlike today, the early Olympic athletes did not represent their birth country at these competitions. Nationality was unimportant.
They ran as members of a university delegation or athletic club. Including the name of a country alongside a competitor's name did not begin until the 1908 Olympics. At the time, the IOC retroactively added a nationality alongside the names of previous performers, and, how Orton became known as an American. Next to his name in the record books it read "George Orton-U. S. A; the mistake would go unnoticed for over 70 years before the IOC took those medals away from the U. S tally and awarded them to Canada's medal total. Orton is the first disabled athlete to win an Olympic gold medal. For many years, he managed to hide his disability, a "dead" right arm and hand, permanently damaged in a childhood accident. Orton was known as "The Father of Philadelphia Hockey", he introduced ice hockey to Philadelphians in 1896 while at Penn, captained the first team there. Citing a lack of a proper facility, Orton was responsible for the building of the first indoor ice arena in Philadelphia, the popularity of the sport took off from there.
Orton founded the Philadelphia Hockey League in 1897, the following year formed the Quaker City Hockey Club Quaker City Hockey Club)which played in the highly-competitive American Amateur Hockey League. From 1920-1922, Orton coached the Penn Varsity hockey team. Years earlier, while attending the University of Toronto, he helped form the first hockey team there, played soccer for the'Varsity' team in the Toronto Football League. Orton was chosen to play on Canada's team that played against a U. S. all-star team from Fall River, Mass. on June 14, 1891. In 1910 he played centre half for the Philadelphia all-stars against the New York all-stars In Haverford, in 1923, at the age of 50, he was playing soccer for Merchantville in the Philadelphia league, he was a member of the Merion and Belmont Cricket Clubs of Philadelphia, the New York Athletic Club, the Pennsylvania Athletic Club, the University of Pennsylvania Track Club and was the secretary of the Rose Tree Fox Hunting Club of Media, Pa. for 43 years.
Orton was a member of the American Academy of Poets, spoke 9 languages fluently. Orton took part in the first Penn Relay Carnival in 1895, became the track coach at Penn, taking over after the death of Mike Murphy, he wrote the definitive training manual for runners, "Distance and Cross Country Running" in 1903, wrote a book about the history of Penn Athletics. He was the manager of the Penn Relays from 1919-1925, helped nurture the event in it's early years, making it the greatest annual track and field competition in the world, he was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame and the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame, as well as the University of Pennsylvania Hall of Fame and the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame. Orton died at age 85 in New Hampshire, his other books included the Bob Hunt series aimed at young boys who enjoy the outdoors. In 1903, Orton co-founded Camp Tecumseh, in New Hampshire. A decade he founded Camp Iroquois, the first overnight athletic camp for girls and young ladies. A book, "The Greatest Athlete, by Mark Hebscher, was published by Dundurn Press in February of 2019.
Hebscher, Mark. "The Greatest Athlete You've Never Heard Of." Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2019
1964 Summer Olympics
The 1964 Summer Olympics known as the Games of the XVIII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event held in Tokyo, from 10 to 24 October 1964. Tokyo had been awarded the organization of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this honour was subsequently passed to Helsinki because of Japan's invasion of China, before being cancelled because of World War II; the 1964 Summer Games were the first Olympics held in Asia, the first time South Africa was barred from taking part due to its apartheid system in sports. Tokyo was chosen as the host city during the 55th IOC Session in West Germany, on 26 May 1959; these games were the first to be telecast internationally without the need for tapes to be flown overseas, as they had been for the 1960 Olympics four years earlier. The games were telecast to the United States using Syncom 3, the first geostationary communication satellite, from there to Europe using Relay 1; these were the first Olympic Games to have color telecasts, albeit partially. Certain events like the sumo wrestling and judo matches, sports huge in Japan, were tried out using Toshiba's new colour transmission system, but only for the domestic market.
History surrounding the 1964 Olympics was chronicled in the 1965 documentary film Tokyo Olympiad, directed by Kon Ichikawa. The games were scheduled for mid-October to avoid the city's midsummer heat and humidity and the September typhoon season; the previous Olympics in Rome in 1960 experienced hot weather. The following games in 1968 in Mexico City began in October; the 1960's Olympics were the last to use a traditional cinder track for the track events. A smooth, all-weather track was used for the first time at the 1968 Olympics and at every Olympiad thereafter. Tokyo won the rights to the Games on 26 May 1959, at the 55th IOC Session in Munich, West Germany, over bids from Detroit and Vienna. Toronto was an early bidder again in 1964 after the failed attempt for 1960 and failed to make the final round. Yūji Koseki composed the theme song of the opening ceremony. Yoshinori Sakai, who lit the Olympic flame, was born in Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, the day an atomic bomb was dropped on that city.
Kumi-daiko was first exhibited to a worldwide audience at the Festival of Arts presentation. Judo and volleyball, both popular sports in Japan, were introduced to the Olympics. Japan won gold medals in three judo events; the Japanese women's volleyball team won the gold medal, with the final being broadcast live. The women's pentathlon was introduced to the athletics events. Reigning world champion Osamu Watanabe capped off his career with a gold medal for Japan in freestyle wrestling, surrendering no points and retiring from competition as the only undefeated Olympic champion to date at 189–0. Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina won a silver medal and two bronze medals, she had held the record for most Olympic medals at 18 which stood until broken by American swimmer Michael Phelps in 2012. Czechoslovakian gymnast Věra Čáslavská wins three gold medals, including the individual all-around competition, crowning her the new queen over the reigning champion Larisa Latynina. Australian swimmer Dawn Fraser won the 100 m freestyle event for the third time in a row, a feat matched by Vyacheslav Ivanov in rowing's single scull event.
Don Schollander won four gold medals in swimming. Abebe Bikila became the first person to win the Olympic marathon twice. New Zealand's Peter Snell won a gold medal in both 1500 metre. American Billy Mills, an unfancied runner, won the gold in the men's 10,000 m. No American had won it before and or since. British runner Ann Packer set a world record in becoming the surprise winner of the 800 metre, having never run the distance at international level before the Games. Bob Hayes won the 100 metre title in a time of 10.0 seconds. He had run a wind-assisted 9.9 seconds in the semifinal, but this was not recognized as a world record. He won a Super Bowl ring as a wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys and was the second gold medalist elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Joe Frazier, future heavyweight champion of the world, won a gold medal in heavyweight boxing; this was the last Summer Olympics to use a cinder running track for athletic events, the first to use fiberglass poles for pole vaulting.
The nation of Malaysia, which had formed the previous year by a union of Malaya, British North Borneo and Singapore, competed for the first time in the Games. Zambia declared its independence on the day of the closing ceremony of the 1964 Summer Olympics, thereby becoming the first country to have entered an Olympic games as one country, left it as another; the start of operations for the first Japanese "bullet train" between Tokyo Station and Shin-Ōsaka Station was scheduled to coincide with the Olympic games. The first scheduled train ran on 1 October 1964, just nine days before the opening of the games, transporting passengers 515 kilometres or 320 miles in about four hours, connecting the three major metropolitan areas of Tokyo and Osaka; the 1964 Summer Olympics featured 19 different sports encompassing 25 disciplines, medals were awarded in 163 events. In the list below, the number of events in each discipline is noted in parentheses. Note: In the Japan Olympic Committee report, sailing is listed as "yacht
