Junior is a category of athletics in which athletes compete under the age of 20 years. Countries all around the world compete in athletics. World Junior Athletics Competitions are held every two years which contain the best junior competitors in the world.
The principle behind the category is to introduce young people into athletics. Participators in the competitions in this class may be athletes who have not completed their twentieth birthday by 31 December of the year the competition occurs. [1] That is, the calendar year in which the competition begins minus the calendar year of an athlete's birth is less than 20.
Athletics is a group of sporting events that involves competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking. The most common types of athletics competitions are track and field, road running, cross-country running, and racewalking.
The decathlon is a combined event in athletics consisting of 10 track and field events. The word "decathlon" was formed, in analogy to the word "pentathlon", from Greek δέκα and ἄθλος. Events are held over two consecutive days and the winners are determined by the combined performance in all. Performance is judged on a points system in each event, not by the position achieved. The decathlon is contested mainly by male athletes, while female athletes typically compete in the heptathlon.
World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation and International Association of Athletics Federations and formerly abbreviated as the IAAF, is the international governing body for the sport of athletics, covering track and field, cross country running, road running, race walking, mountain running, and ultra running. Included in its charge is the standardization of rules and regulations for the sports, certification of athletic facilities, recognition and management of world records, and the organisation and sanctioning of athletics competitions, including the World Athletics Championships. The organisation's president is Sebastian Coe of the United Kingdom, who was elected to the four-year position in 2015 and re-elected unopposed in 2019 for a second four-year term, and then again in 2023 for a third and final 4 years.
The European Athletic Association is the governing body for athletics in Europe. It is one of the six Area Associations of the world's athletics governing body World Athletics. European Athletics has 51 members and is headquartered in Lausanne.
The World Athletics U20 Championships is a biennial world championships for the sport of athletics organised by the World Athletics, contested by athletes in the under-20 athletics age category (19 years old or younger on 31 December in the year of the competition.
The European Athletics U20 Championships are the European championships for athletes who are under-20 athletes, which is the age range recognised by World Athletics as junior athletes. The event is currently organized by the European Athletic Association.
The CARIFTA Games is an annual athletics competition founded by the Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA). The games were first held in 1972 and consist of track and field events including sprint races, hurdles, middle distance track events, jumping and throwing events, and relays. The Games has two age categories: under-17 and under-20. Only countries associated with CARIFTA may compete in the competition.
The Central American and Caribbean Junior Championships was a junior athletics competition held between the nations of Central America and the Caribbean Islands promoted by the Central American and Caribbean Athletic Confederation (CACAC). It is divided into the Junior B Central American and Caribbean Junior Championships held since 1978 and the Junior A Central American and Caribbean Junior Championships held since 1974. The Junior A category was open for girls and boys aged 17–20 until 2010. and for girls and boys aged 18–20 starting in the year 2012. The Junior B category was open for girls and boys aged 14–16 until 2010. and for girls and boys aged 14–17 starting in the year 2012.
The Oceania Athletics Championships is an athletics event organized by the Oceania Athletics Association (OAA) for the World Athletics member associations of the Oceania region.
Mark David Hylton is a former British 400 metres sprinter. Hylton won a silver medal in the relay at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.
The South American U20 Championships in Athletics are the South American championships in the sport of athletics which is open for those in the junior age category. It is organized by the South American Athletics Confederation (CONSUDATLE).
Morgan Lake is a British high jumper. She won the silver medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and placed fourth at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Lake finished sixth in the 2017 World Championships in Athletics and fourth in the 2018 World Indoor 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.
Youth is a category of athletics in which athletes compete under the age of 18 years. Countries all around the world compete in athletics. World Youth Athletics Competitions are held every 2 years which contain the best Youth competitors in the world.
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.
The Athlete Refugee Team (ART) is a delegation under which refugee athletes can compete collectively at IAAF competitions. The official IAAF logo was used as the team's flag until 2019. World Athletics collaborated with Kenyan long-distance runner Tegla Loroupe to form the team in 2014 as a short-term response to the growing refugee crisis that left millions of people dislocated or stateless. However, it has since turned into a sort of permanent feature at World Athletics events due to the refugee crisis only worsening. Many of the athletes originate from a variety of nations such as: Sudan, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Syria, and Ethiopia. They include a majority of runners, as well as professional swimmers, material artists, etc.
The USATF U20 Outdoor Championships, formerly known as the USA Junior Outdoor Track & Field Championships, is an annual outdoor track and field competition organized by USA Track & Field (USATF) which serves as the national championship for American athletes aged under 20. The competition is also used for American national team selection for the IAAF World U20 Championships in even-numbered years and the Pan American U20 Athletics Championships in odd-numbered years.
Yaroslava Oleksiyivna Mahuchikh is a Ukrainian high jumper. She was the 2020 Summer Olympics bronze medalist, 2019 and 2022 World Championships silver medalist, 2023 World Championships gold medalist, 2022 World Indoor Championships gold medalist, and 2024 World Indoor Championships silver medalist.
The World Athletics Rankings are an individual athlete ranking system for the sport of athletics, managed by World Athletics. It is used to establish the number one athlete within an athletics event and to partially determine qualification into the World Athletics Championships and the athletics at the Summer Olympics. The rankings are published weekly by World Athletics on Wednesday. WA President Sebastian Coe said the goal of this system is so athletes and fans "have a clear understanding of the hierarchy of competitions from national through to area and up to global events, allowing them to follow a logical season-long path to the pinnacle of athletics' top two competitions".
In the course of its history, the sport of athletics (track and field) has undergone many changes. This article presents the changes to the rules of competition as well as to major events in the sport.