A four-minute mile is the completion of a mile run in four minutes or less. It translates to a speed of 15 miles per hour (24 km/h). It is a standard of professional middle distance runners in several cultures.
Middle-distance running events are track races longer than sprints, up to 3000 metres. The standard middle distances are the 800 metres, 1500 metres and mile run, although the 3000 metres may also be classified as a middle-distance event. The 1500 m came about as a result of running 3+3⁄4 laps of a 400 m outdoor track or 7+1⁄2 laps of a 200 m indoor track, which were commonplace in continental Europe in the 20th century.
60 metres, or 60-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field. It is a championship event for indoor championships, normally dominated by the best outdoor 100 metres runners. At indoor events, the 60 metres is run on lanes set out in the middle of the 'field', as is the hurdles event over the same distance, thus avoiding some of the effects of the banked track encircling the venue, upon which other track events in indoor events are run. At outdoor venues it is a rare distance, at least for senior athletes. The format of the event is similar to other sprint distances. The sprinters follow three initial instructions: 'on your marks', instructing them to take up position in the starting blocks; 'set', instructing them to adopt a more efficient starting posture, which also isometrically preloads their muscles. This will enable them to start faster. The final instruction is the firing of the starter's pistol. Upon hearing this the sprinters stride forwards from the blocks.
The 1500 metres or 1,500-metre run is the foremost middle distance track event in athletics. The distance has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 and the World Championships in Athletics since 1983. It is equivalent to 1.5 kilometers or approximately 15⁄16 miles. The event is closely associated with its slightly longer cousin, the mile race, from which it derives its nickname "the metric mile".
The mile run is a middle-distance foot race.
Jordan Melissa Hasay is an American distance runner. She grew up in Arroyo Grande, California, and attended Mission College Preparatory High School in San Luis Obispo. She was unanimously selected 2008 Girls High School Athlete of the Year by the voting panel at Track and Field News. In March 2009, she became the ninth high school athlete and third woman on the cover of Track and Field News magazine. She attended the University of Oregon, where she studied business administration and competed on the cross country and track and field teams earning 18 All-American honors, 2011 Mile and 3,000 meters NCAA titles. Her father was a high school basketball star in Pennsylvania, and her mother was a national level swimmer in her native England. Jordan Hasay is no longer coached by Alberto Salazar due to his suspension.
Mount Gilead High School is a public high school in Mount Gilead, Ohio. It is the only high school in the Mount Gilead Exempted Village Schools district. Their nickname is the Indians. The school currently is under superintendent Dr. Zack Howard. The school uses three buildings for students: Park Avenue, a K-5 building; Cherry Street, a middle school containing 6–8; and the High School, also located on Park Avenue. Over the past four years the Cross Country team has participated in the state tournament. In 2002 Jake Haughn won the Division III OHSAA 3200 Meter run title in track, at the time setting a new record. The School has a long-standing and fierce rivalry with Cardington-Lincoln High School.
German Fernandez is a retired American professional runner from Riverbank, California, known for his performance in high school and collegiate cross country and track and field. Later he trained under Jerry Schumacher for the Bowerman Track Club. He is most well known for running the California Cross Country State Meet course record (14:24), as well as running a new American high-school record, 8:34.40 for two miles, at the 2008 Nike Outdoor Nationals championship. He also holds the World Junior Indoor Mile record at 3:55.02. A local meet in Riverbank, California, the German Fernandez Distance Carnival, is named after him.
The 2 mile is a historic running distance. Like the mile run, it is still contested at some invitational meets due its historical chronology in the United States and United Kingdom. It has been largely superseded by the 3000 m and 5000 m, and by the 3200 m in NFHS American high school competitions. The IAAF no longer keeps official world records for this distance; they are called world best instead.
Lukas Verzbicas is an American triathlete. A prominent high school track and cross country runner, Verzbicas holds the U.S. high school national record in the 2 mile with a time of 8:29.46. He was also the fifth American high school boy to run a sub four-minute mile, running 3:59.71 at the end of his senior year of high school.
Jeff Nelson is an American former long distance runner. He was a high school phenom at Burbank High School, where he set the national high school record in the 2 mile run, the predecessor to today's 3200 meter run, at 8:36.3. He set the record before a national television audience, running in open competition at the Pepsi Invitational, May 6, 1979 at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Low hurdle races are a generally defunct form of track and field hurdle racing. The event, generally run at or near a distance of 200 metres, was popular through 1960 at the international level. After that, the IAAF stopped ratifying records in the 200 metres low hurdles and it became far less common. United States high schools ran a shortened version of the race, the 180 yard low hurdles, until 1974, when most states and the NFHS converted to running the 330 yard low hurdles that with metrification evolved into the 300 meter intermediate hurdles, a shortened version of the international 400 metres hurdles. Because the race occurred in a male dominated era, there was no common female equivalent of the race. At the time the race lost its world record position, women were only occasionally running hurdles and when they did it was the 80 meter hurdles, over barriers the same height as the men's low hurdles.
David Torrence was a Peruvian-American middle-distance runner and indoor American record holder in the 1000 meters (active). Born in Okinawa, Japan, Torrence was raised in Tarzana, California. After graduating from Loyola High School in 2003, he went on to run for the University of California, Berkeley and Hoka One One. Torrence represented Peru at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Colleen Quigley is an American middle-distance runner, steeplechase specialist and an Olympian from St. Louis, Missouri. She is the current World Record holder in the 4x1500 meters relay. Competing in the 3000 meters steeplechase, she finished 8th at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio and 12th at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics in Beijing. She was the 2019 US National Indoor Champion in the one-mile event running 4:29.47 to capture the title and was the 2015 NCAA Champion in the 3000 meters steeplechase. In 2023, Quigley announced that she would start competing in triathlon events, but that she still plans to race track and field through 2024.
Luke Puskedra is an American long-distance runner who competes over distances ranging from 10,000 meters to the marathon.
Emily Sisson is an American long-distance runner. She set the North American record in the marathon on 9 October 2022, when she ran 2:18:29 to finish second at the Chicago Marathon. Sisson also held the American record in the half marathon from May 2022 until July 2023. She represented the United States in the 10000 metres at the 2017 and 2019 World Athletics Championships, finishing 9th and 10th. In June 2021, she won the 10000m at the 2020 US Olympic Trials and placed 10th in the 10000m final at the 2020 Summer Olympics. In 2024, she placed second in the marathon at the US Olympic Trials, qualifying for the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Katelyn Tuohy is an American professional middle- and long-distance runner.
1600 meters is a middle distance track and field running event that is slightly shorter than the more common mile run, and 100m longer than the much more common 1500m run.
Jenna Hutchins, is a high school and "Under 20" record-breaking American long distance runner from Johnson City, Tennessee. She ranked within the global top 100 for 5000 metres athletes in 2020.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen 7:51.35+ (2023)
Meseret Defar 8:55.45+ (2007)
