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.
World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation and International Association of Athletics Federations 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 are 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 in 2015 and re-elected unopposed in 2019 for a further four years.
Racewalking, or race walking, is a long-distance discipline within the sport of athletics. Although a foot race, it is different from running in that one foot must appear to be in contact with the ground at all times. Race judges carefully assess that this is maintained throughout the race. Typically held on either roads or running tracks, common distances range from 3,000 metres (1.9 mi) up to 100 kilometres (62.1 mi).
The World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships is a racewalking event organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations. It has been held since 1961, and generally on a biennial basis. Women first entered the 1979 edition. It was formerly known as the Lugano Cup after the city that hosted the first event, then became the IAAF World Race Walking Cup until 2016 and then IAAF World Race Walking Team Championships until 2018. In 2004, a junior division was added, consisting of men and women aged under 20. Since 2008 it has been a constituent meeting of the World Athletics Challenge – Race Walking.
The World Athletics Combined Events Tour is an annual series of combined track and field events meetings, organised since 1998 by World Athletics, with heptathlon for women and decathlon for men. The winners are decided by totalling the number of points that the athletes have scored in each of three combined events competitions during the season. Points scored are determined by the World Athletics combined events scoring tables. The series includes annual independent combined events meetings as well as championship level combined events competitions, such as the World Athletics Championships and Olympic Games. It is the premier seasonal competition for decathletes and heptathletes, as combined events are not held for the Diamond League.
The World Athletics Race Walking Tour is a racewalking series organised by World Athletics. Athletes accumulate points in specific race walk meetings during the season. Performances in 10 kilometres race walk, 20 kilometres race walk and 50 kilometres race walk count towards athlete's final scores. Since 2011, racewalking performances at the World Athletics Championships and Olympic Games count towards the series. Women have competed in the 50 km distance since 2018.
The IAAF World Cross Challenge was an annual global series of cross country running competitions organized by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). Athletes accumulated points in the series' cross country meets during the season, which typically began in December and finished in March prior to the annual IAAF World Cross Country Championships. The series was based upon the IAAF Grand Prix track and field circuit and the IAAF hoped to similarly boost the sport of cross country running. The last series was held in 1999–2000, after which point it was replaced by the IAAF Cross Country Permit Meetings series which featured similar races but did not have a point scoring format.
The following events in the sport of athletics took place in 2006:
2014 in sports describes the year's events in world sport.
The 2010 IAAF Race Walking Challenge was the eighth edition of the annual international racewalking series organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). Ten meetings are scheduled for the competition: the 2010 IAAF World Race Walking Cup, four IAAF permit meetings, and five area permit meetings.
The IAAF Hammer Throw Challenge was an annual hammer throw series, organized by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) from 2010 until the end of 2019 season. The series of hammer throw competitions for men and women were primary held at meetings with IAAF World Challenge status. The rankings were decided by combining the total of each athlete's three greatest throws at the permit events during the season. Further points could be gained by those who broke or equalled the world record mark for the event.
Wang Zhen is a Chinese race walker who specialises in the 10 kilometres and 20 kilometres race walk. He holds the senior Asian record for the 20 km with his time of 1:17:36 hours and is also the Asian, Chinese and junior world record holder over 10 km. He was the bronze medallist over 20 km at the 2012 London Olympics and the gold medallist at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
The 2011 IAAF Race Walking Challenge was the 9th edition of the annual international race walking competition organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). Ten meetings were scheduled for the competition: the race walk events at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics, five IAAF permit meetings, and four area permit meetings.
The ninth edition of the European Race Walking Cup was held on the roads of Olhão, Portugal on 21 May 2011. The event was jointly organised by the Federação Portuguesa de Atletismo and the European Athletics Association. A total of 222 athletes from 26 countries participated in the competition.
The African Combined Events Championships is an international athletics competition between African athletes in the disciplines of men's decathlon and women's heptathlon. It became part of the IAAF Combined Events Challenge circuit in 2011.
The Grande Prémio Internacional de Rio Maior em Marcha Atlética is an annual racewalking competition that takes place in April in Rio Maior in Portugal. It is an elite level event which features a men's and a women's race in the 20 kilometres race walk.
In 2015, the foremost athletics event was the 2015 World Championships in Athletics in Beijing. The two other major global level competitions in 2015 are the World Cross Country Championships and the IAAF World Relays.
In 2016, the foremost athletics events will be staged at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. The two other major global level competitions in 2016 are the World Indoor Championships and World Half Marathon Championships.
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".
The IAAF Race Walking Challenge Final was an annual racewalking competition organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). It served as the culmination of the IAAF Race Walking Challenge series from 2007 to 2012. It featured a men's and a women's 20 kilometres race walk. Any athlete could compete at the final, though to be eligible for the series prize money pot of US$202,000 a minimum of four finishes at Race Walking Challenge meetings held that year was required. If the points winner of the Race Walking Challenge series did not compete at the final, their prize money was halved.
Isaac Palma (MEX)
Erik Tysse (NOR)
Inês Henriques (POR)
Li Jianbo (CHN)
Yusuke Suzuki (JPN)
Elena Lashmanova (RUS)
Matej Tóth (SVK)
Jared Tallent (AUS)
Robert Heffernan (IRL)