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.
The IAAF World Athletics Final was an annual track and field competition organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). It was inaugurated in 2003 to replace the IAAF Grand Prix Final. The competition was part of the IAAF World Athletics Series and was the seasonal culmination of the IAAF World Outdoor Meetings series from 2003 to 2005, then the IAAF World Athletics Tour from 2006 to 2009. Due to changes in the one-day meeting system introduced by the IAAF, the World Athletics Final was discontinued after the 2009 season.
This article contains an overview of the sport of athletics, including track and field, cross country and road running, in the year 2002.
The Diamond League is an annual series of elite track and field athletic competitions comprising fourteen of the best invitational athletics meetings. The series sits in the top tier of the World Athletics one-day meeting competitions.
The World Mountain Running Association (WMRA) is the global governing body of mountain running.
The IAAF Grand Prix was an annual, global circuit of one-day outdoor track and field competitions organized by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). It was created in 1985 as the IAAF's first seasonal track and field circuit and lasted until 2009. Athletes scored points based on their performances on the circuit and the top athletes were invited to the annual IAAF Grand Prix Final.
Andrea Mayr is a female long-distance runner from Austria. She also competes in mountain running and cycling. She set her personal best (2:30:43) in the women's marathon on April 19, 2009, winning the Vienna City Marathon. She holds the Austrian records over the half marathon and marathon distances.
The World Mountain Running Championships, is an international mountain running competition contested by athletes of the members of WMRA, World Mountain Running Association, the sport's global governing body.
The World Long Distance Mountain Running Championships, is an annual international mountain running competition organised by the World Mountain Running Association (WMRA).
Ahmet Arslan is a long-distance runner from Turkey competing in mountain running. He is a six time successive champion of European Mountain Running Championships.
Dejen Gebremeskel is an Ethiopian long-distance runner who primarily competes in track events. His personal best of 12:46.81 minutes for the 5000 metres ranks him as the fifth fastest of all time for the distance. He was the 5000 m silver medallist at the 2012 London Olympics and took the bronze medal over that distance at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics.
The 2015 IAAF World Cross Country Championships was the 41st edition of the global championships in cross country running, organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations. It was held in Guiyang, China on 28 March. It was the first time that the event was held in China, and the third occasion it took place in Asia. Senior and junior races were held for men and women, with the four races having both a team and individual element.
The 2012 World Mountain Running Championships were held on 2 September in Val Camonica in the Italian Alps. The course ran from Temù - Ponte di Legno to Tonale Pass. It was the 28th edition of the championships, organised by the World Mountain Running Association (WMRA), and the seventh time that Italy had hosted the competition. The competition featured four races, with senior and junior (under-19) races for both men and women. A total of 343 runners from a record high of 40 nations finished the competition.
Sifan Hassan is an Ethiopian-born Dutch middle- and long-distance runner. She completed an unprecedented triple at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics winning gold medals in both the 5000 metres and 10,000 metres, and a bronze medal for the 1500 metres. Hassan is the only athlete in Olympic history to win medals across a middle-distance event and both long-distance races in a single Games. She is only the second woman to complete an Olympic distance double.
In 2014 there was no primary outdoor global athletics championship, as neither the Summer Olympics nor the World Championships in Athletics occurred in the year. The 2014 IAAF World Indoor Championships, and the 2014 IAAF Continental Cup were the foremost global events to be held in 2014. The 2014 IAAF World Relays marked the debut of the new international competition exclusively for relay races.
The IAAF Golden Events were a sporadic series of twelve athletics events organised by the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) from 1978 to 1982. Aside from the inaugural event in Tokyo, the contests were held in Europe and were attached to independent track and field meetings. The purpose of the events was to raise the profile of the sport outside of Olympic competition. Marking the growing professionalism in athletics, a significant prize pot was given to the winner of the event – a move designed to attract the sport's top athletes to compete against each other at the same meeting. The inaugural prize was an 18-carat gold trophy worth 9,500 US dollars. All twelve events were for men, reflecting their position as the most prominent sex during that period.
Victoria Wilkinson is an English runner and cyclo-cross rider who was a world mountain running champion at junior level and who has several times been a national fell running champion as a senior athlete.
Izabela Zatorska is a Polish female mountain runner three-time winner of the WMRA World Cup.
Alex Baldaccini is an Italian male mountain runner who won WMRA World Cup in 2017.
Helmut Schmuck (AUT)
Janina Saxer-Juszko (SUI)
Antonio Molinari (ITA)
Jonathan Wyatt (NZL)
Angela Mudge (GBR)
Izabela Zatorska (POL)
Anna Pichrtová (CZE)
Ahmet Arslan (TUR)
Lucija Krkoč (SLO)
Azeria Teklay (ERI)
Geoffrey Gikuni Ndungu (KEN)
Sarah McCormack (IRL)
