Ekiden (駅伝) is a long-distance running multi-stage relay race, mostly held on roads.
Soft tennis is a racket game played on a court of two halves, separated by a net. Soft tennis originated in Japan in 1884. Like regular tennis, it is played by individuals (singles) or pairs (doubles), whose objective is to hit the ball over the net, landing within the confines of the court, with the aim of preventing one's opponent from being able to hit it back. Matches are generally best-of-seven or best-of-nine. Soft tennis differs from regular tennis in that it uses soft rubber balls instead of hard yellow balls.
The International Dragon Boat Federation is the international governing body for the sport of dragon boat racing. IDBF was founded in Hong Kong on June 24, 1991 by Australia, China, Taiwan, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Norway, the Philippines, Singapore, and the United States. IDBF currently has 75 member countries or territories and is supported by five continental federations.
The Asian Cross Country Championships is a biennial regional cross country running competition for athletes from Asia. It is organised by the Asian Athletics Association and was first held in 1991 in Fukuoka, Japan. The competition has been held every two years since then, although the 2003 edition was postponed due to political conflicts within the region.
The 2010 Asian Junior Athletics Championships was the 14th edition of the international athletics competition for Asian under-20 athletes, organised by the Asian Athletics Association. It took place from 1 to 4 July 2010 at the My Dinh National Stadium in Hanoi – the first time the competition was held in Vietnam. A total of 44 events were contested, which were divided equally between male and female athletes. Three championship records were improved over the course of the four-day competition and numerous national junior records were also bettered. The competition, including its opening and closing ceremonies, was broadcast live on Vietnamese carrier VTV3.
In India, the sport of athletics was introduced during the period of the British Raj. The sport is governed at national level by the Athletics Federation of India, which was formed in 1946. Despite its large population, few Indian athletes have won a medal in a global or major championship. This began to change in the 21st century, when Indians started taking greater interest in athletics more generally and improved facilities for the sport began to be built at a local level. At a continental level, it has been among the more successful Asian nations, though some distance behind China and Japan.
The 2012 Asian Junior Athletics Championships was the 15th edition of the international athletics competition for Asian under-20 athletes, organised by the Asian Athletics Association. It took place from 9 to 12 June at the Sugathadasa Stadium in Colombo, Sri Lanka – the same venue hosted the 2002 Asian Athletics Championships. Thirty-four nations took part in the event and over five hundred athletes participated. A total of 44 events were contested, with the events being evenly split between the genders.
The 2013 Asian Athletics Championships were the 20th edition of the biennial athletics competition between Asian nations. It was held at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Balewadi, Pune, India between 3–7 July. Around 522 athletes from 42 nations competed at the event. It was the first time since 1989 that India had hosted the championships.
The sports under the umbrella of athletics, particularly track and field, use a variety of statistics. In order to report that information efficiently, numerous abbreviations have grown to be common in the sport. Starting in 1948 by Bert Nelson and Cordner Nelson, Track & Field News became the leader in creating and defining abbreviations in this field. These abbreviations have also been adopted by, among others, World Athletics; the world governing body, various domestic governing bodies, the Association of Track and Field Statisticians, the Association of Road Racing Statisticians, the Associated Press, and the individual media outlets who receive their reports. These abbreviations also appear in Wikipedia.
The 2014 Asian Junior Athletics Championships was the 16th edition of the international athletics competition for Asian under-20 athletes, organised by the Asian Athletics Association and the Chinese Taipei Track & Field Association. Events were held at Taipei Municipal Stadium in Taipei, Republic of China from 12–15 June. A total of 44 events were contested, with the events being evenly split between the sexes.
Athletics was one of the sports at the biennial Far Eastern Championship Games. Athletics competitions were held at every one of the ten editions of the games, which existed between 1913 and 1934. This represented the first time that a regular major international athletics competition occurred between Asian nations. It was later succeeded by athletics at the Asian Games, which began in 1951.
The 2014 Arab Junior Athletics Championships was the sixteenth edition of the international athletics competition for under-20 athletes from Arab countries. It took place between 23–26 April in Cairo, Egypt. It was the fifth time that the Egyptian capital hosted the event. A total of 44 athletics events were contested, 22 for men and 22 for women.
The 2016 Asian Junior Athletics Championships was the 17th edition of the international athletics competition for Asian under-20 athletes, organised by the Asian Athletics Association and the Vietnam Athletics Federation. Athletes born between 1997 and 2000 competed in 44 events, divided evenly between the sexes. The competition took place over four days from 3–6 June at Thống Nhất Stadium in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. A total of 45 countries entered athletes into the tournament, eighteen of which reached the medal table. The competition, including its opening and closing ceremonies, was broadcast live on Vietnamese carrier VTV6
The 2017 Asian Athletics Championships was the 22nd edition of the Asian Athletics Championships. It was held from 6 to 9 July 2017 at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, India. Bhubaneswar was the third Indian city to host Asian Championships. Around 560 athletes from 41 countries attended the event.
The 2018 World U20 Championships in Athletics, also known as the World Junior Championships, was an international athletics competition for athletes qualifying as juniors which was held at Tampere Stadium in Tampere, Finland on 10–15 July 2018. The championships were originally awarded to Tampere by the IAAF in March, 2016.
Japan participated at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires, Argentina from 6 October to 18 October 2018.
The Southeast Asian Youth Athletics Championships is an annual athletics competition between youth athletes (under-18) from Southeast Asian nations which is organised by the Southeast Asian Athletics Association. The event, first held in 2006, was formerly known as the Southeast Asian Junior Championships, though entries have always been for under-18 athletes, rather than the international standard of "junior" signifying under-20 athletics.
Aruna Darshana is a Sri Lankan sprinter specialising in the 400 metres. He was tipped by many in the circles that he could follow the footsteps of former veteran athlete Sugath Thilakaratne. He won the men's 400m event during the 2018 National Athletics Championships by clocking at 46.16 seconds.
The 2019 Asian Youth Athletics Championships was the third edition of the biennial, continental athletics competition for Asian athletes aged 15 to 17. It was held at the Tseung Kwan O Sports Ground in Hong Kong from 15 to 17 March. Organised by the Hong Kong Amateur Athletic Association, a total of forty events will be contested with the events divided evenly between the sexes. The host was announced in January 2019 by Asian Athletics Association.
Nordic Athletics is an international governing body for the sport of athletics in the Nordic countries – Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. It is responsible for organising Nordic competitions between the nations, as well as collating Nordic records for the best performances by athletes of the nations, and holding congresses on the sport for technical rules, coaching and sport administration. Membership of the regional body is composed of the five national athletics bodies. The group also serves to influence the International Association of Athletics Federations and European Athletics in regards to Nordic issues.
