Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events. Track and field is categorized under the umbrella sport of athletics, which also includes road running, cross country running and racewalking.
The men's discus throw competition at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens was held at the Olympic Stadium on 21–23 August. It was originally planned to hold the discus throw at the Ancient Olympia Stadium, but it was discovered that the field was not large enough to accommodate the range of modern discus throwers, and would have posed a danger to spectators. As such, it was decided to move the discus throw and to hold the shot put at the ancient stadium, despite the fact that the shot put was not contested at the Ancient Olympic Games. Thirty-nine athletes from 26 nations competed.
Iryna Vasiliyevna Yatchenko is a Belarusian former discus thrower best known for winning two Olympic bronze medals at the 2000 Summer Olympics and 2004 Summer Olympics, although she was eventually stripped of the latter medal due to a doping offence. She also became world champion at the 2003 World Championships in Athletics. Her personal best is 69.14 metres, achieved in July 2004 in Minsk.
Larisa Korotkevich is a retired female discus thrower from Russia. Her personal best throw is 71.30 m, achieved on 29 May 1992 in Sochi. This mark ranks her 16th on the all-time discus rankings and, as of 2014, no woman has surpassed that mark since it was set.
The high jump at the Summer Olympics is grouped among the four track and field jumping events held at the multi-sport event. The men's high jump has been present on the Olympic athletics programme since the first Summer Olympics in 1896. The women's high jump was one of five events to feature on the first women's athletics programme in 1928, and it was the only jumping event available to women until 1948, when the long jump was permitted.
Combined events at the Summer Olympics have been contested in several formats at the multi-sport event. There are two combined track and field events in the current Olympic athletics programme: a men's decathlon and a women's heptathlon.
The athletics competition at the 2007 European Youth Summer Olympic Festival was held from 23 to 27 July. The events took place in Belgrade, Serbia. Boys and girls born 1990 or 1991 or later participated 34 track and field events, with similar programmes for the sexes with the exception of no steeplechase or hammer throw event for girls.
The athletics competition at the 2005 European Youth Summer Olympic Festival was held from 3 to 8 July. The events took place at the Stadio Comunale G. Teghil in Lignano Sabbiadoro, Italy. Boys and girls born 1988 or 1989 or later participated 33 track and field events, with similar programmes for the sexes with the exception of no steeplechase event for girls. A girls' and a boys' triple jump were contested for the first time.
The 1st World Festival of Youth and Students featured an athletics competition among its programme of events. The events were contested in Prague, Czechoslovakia in August 1947. Mainly contested among Eastern European athletes, it served as an alternative to the more Western European-oriented 1947 International University Games held in Paris the same year.
The 2nd World Festival of Youth and Students featured an athletics competition among its programme of events. The events were contested in Budapest, Hungary, between 15 and 21 August 1949. Mainly contested among Eastern European athletes, it served as an alternative to the more Western European-oriented 1949 Summer International University Sports Week held in Merano the same year.
The 3rd World Festival of Youth and Students featured an athletics competition among its programme of events. The events were contested in East Berlin, East Germany in August 1951. Mainly contested among Eastern European athletes, it served as an alternative to the more Western European-oriented 1951 Summer International University Sports Week held in Luxembourg the same year.
The 4th World Festival of Youth and Students featured an athletics competition among its programme of events. The events were contested in Bucharest, Romania in August 1953. Mainly contested among Eastern European athletes, it served as an alternative to the more Western European-oriented 1953 Summer International University Sports Week held in Dortmund the same year.
The 1954 World Student Games were an athletics competition held in Budapest, Hungary by the Union Internationale des Étudiants (UIE). It marked a one-off departure from the athletics event being linked to the biennial World Festival of Youth and Students.
The 5th World Festival of Youth and Students featured an athletics competition among its programme of events. The events were contested in Warsaw, Poland in August 1955. Mainly contested among Eastern European athletes, it served as an alternative to the more Western European-oriented 1955 Summer International University Sports Week held in San Sebastián the same year.
The 6th World Festival of Youth and Students featured an athletics competition among its programme of events. The events were contested in Moscow, Soviet Union in August 1957. Mainly contested among Eastern European athletes, it served as an alternative to the more Western European-oriented 1957 World University Games held in Paris the same year in September.
The 1986 Arab Junior Athletics Championships was the second edition of the international athletics competition for under-20 athletes from Arab countries. It took place in Cairo, Egypt. A total of 38 athletics events were contested, 22 for men and 16 for women. Algeria, a regional power in the sport, did not send a team.
József Szécsényi was a Hungarian track and field athlete, who competed in the discus throw event. He was the bronze medallist at the 1954 European Athletics Championships, becoming Hungary's second such medallist in the event after István Donogán.
Oto Yanovich Grigalka was a Latvian track and field athlete who competed in the shot put and discus throw. He represented the Soviet Union at the Summer Olympics in 1952 and 1956. He placed fourth in the shot put and sixth in the discus in 1952,then came fifth at the 1956 Olympic discus competition.
In the sport of athletics, pentathlons have taken various forms over the history of the sport, typically incorporating five track and field events. The only version of the event to remain at a high level of contemporary competition is the women's indoor pentathlon, which is present on the programme for the World Athletics Indoor Championships.
The 1983 UK Athletics Championships was the national championship in outdoor track and field for the United Kingdom held at Meadowbank Stadium, Edinburgh. It was the second time the event was held in the Scottish city, following on from the 1978 UK Athletics Championships. The women's 5000 metres race walk was restored to the programme after an absence at the 1982 event.
Jerzy Juskowiak (POL)
Edvin Ozolin (URS)
Reinhard Seidler (GDR)
Vilém Mandlík (TCH)
Traian Sudrigean (ROM)
Ingemar Hägglund (SWE)
Osvaldo Suárez (ARG)
Georgi Kaburov (BUL)
Elio Catola (ITA)
Branko Miler (YUG)
Heinrich Thun (AUT)
Imre Trényi (HUN)