I’ll readily admit I’m a huge fan of Track and Field. I watch it often on TV (As I will for the Goodwill Games later this evening), and participate in it every spring.
I am biased towards certain events, obviously, the ones I participate in. I shall hold off mentioning those for now (but someone who read an earlier post from me may know).
Okay, so here’s my question:
What is your favorite Track and Field event?
Here are the candidates which I can think of at the moment.
Field: Discus, Shot Put, Javelin, Hammer, Long Jump, High Jump, Triple Jump
Track: 100M, 200M, 400M, 800M, 1500M, 3000M, 110HH, 400IH, Steeplechase, 4 x 100, 4 x 400
(By the way, before anyone jumps in with the 55 M Dash, or 2000 M, let me say I only wrote the events above which I percieve to be the most well known to the world. You are perfectly welcome to vote for whatever you want.
You know what is weird? I have a buddy whose AIM name is SprNova##. She runs track and field (the 200m, I believe). I know SuperNova and my buddy aren’t the same person, though, because my buddy can’t spell worth crap. (Sorry babe, you know it’s true.)
As for the OP, I’m not really a trackie. I’m a cross country runner. Nyah.
While the 100 may have more glamour going for it, for me, the preeminent track race has to be the 1,500. It’s neither long enough to survive on endurance alone or short enough to win with on sheer speed. For those reasons, world class runners treat the 1,500 as a chess match on spikes.
And excluding the king, Hicham El Guerrouj, this distance has a great field of closely ranked athletes. Any one of them could win on a given day. Reyes-Estevez, Redolat, Noah Ngeny, Saidi-Sief, etc.
Omitted from the OP are the decathlon and heptathlon.
Whilst these events comprise a selection of those listed in the OP, I like the fact that they take place over two days and the lead can change several times, theoretically, during the course of the competition.
Apart from which, the UK has world class athletes in the decathlon (Dean Macey) and the heptathlon (Denise Lewis).
Another vote for the 1500, although if there is a mile race available, I’d side with tradition and vote for that. For me, this race epitomizes track and field.
[old and cranky voice]
In my day, I was a half miler. We didn’t have any of these fancy-pants metric races.
[/old and cranky voice]
Now that I’m older and much less wiser, I run marathons :).
Personally, my favorite (not listed) is the 5000M. But if I stick with the list given, I’m pretty keen on the 1500 or the 3000. While the dashes are exciting, I’m more into endurance, and how those guys & gals can crank it over a longer distance. It boggles my mind.
I gotta say my favorite to compete in is (or was, I sadly don’t compete anymore) the pole vault. It’s so fun to go flying into the air like that, and then fall back down to Earth.
I also enjoy the Hurdles, (both 110M AND 300M) and my best event, triple jump.
I also competed in a couple of decathalons and enjoyed them, because you do all these events when you are normally restricted to four a meet (in HS rules, anyways.)
I also ran X-Country, which they say is counter-productive (slow-twitch vs. fast-twitch muscles.) but I love distance (just ran my first marathon last May.)
I couldn’t really pick one event but part of my interest in the 100m, 400m, 1500m 10,000m because of the transition in the body type of athlete that excel in them. I find disiplines where one immensely talented person can win over any distance a bit of a worry.
If pressed, my vote would go to the 1,500m. I was OK at a regional level. On the other hand I had the good fortune to be on the home straight at Homebush to see Johnson and Freeman win their 400m events and that was electrifying.
For crowd involvement the long jump and pole vote score pretty well.