Jake Yono 

JY Journalism

5/23/23

What are my thoughts about the High School Track and Field Order of events currently?

Hello everybody, as you might have known I just wrapped up my freshman year of high school track. I am mainly a 800m runner but sometimes I run the mile and the 4x400. The order of events concerns all runners. I highlighted runners because I’m not talking about field events because they are always first and should stay that way. What I am talking about is the running events. I am going to be diving into the perspective of a sprinter, mid-distance, long-distance runner, and hurdler and the perspectives of people who do field and track events and athletes who run different types of track events.

Let’s start with a sprinter's perspective. Sprinting events are the 100,200, and their respective relays, some sprinters also do the 400, and the 4x400. One thing to consider with sprinting is that there are always multiple heats of the 100 and 200. The 100 is first the 4x200 I think these two events should be separated as they are too close to each other considering after this there is also the mile then the 4x100. If a coach knows how to plan this then they can work around it. I think there should be 2 events between each sprinting event in the sport of track and field but also considering the 400 as a sprinters event you half to fit it in.

  Now let’s talk about the bread and butter of track and field and the events I run which are mid-distance races. I consider mid-distance as the 400m more than it is as a sprinting event and the event where distance runners move down and sprinters move up, in my opinion, the hardest event in track in the field is the 800m run. An 800m runner is more likely to be a distance runner than a sprinter but I do know a decent amount of sprinters who compete in the 8. The 4x800 is the first mid-distance event. I do strongly believe the USATF Federation Thinks the 800 is the toughest event because there is a 7-event break between the 4x800 and the open 8 and only a 4-event break between the open 4 and the 4x4. But I do think the 4x8 and 800 difference is way too long so I think the mile and 4x800 should be flipped because 800m runners wait too long and I think the mile and 2-mile gap should be longer because it is a long distance and that gets us into our next topic, distance running.

  In distance running, I think the mile, 2 miles, and the 4x800 are all distance events. And I said the 4x8 because distance runners can do the 4x800 and get a good time to help their team on a short rostered lineup.

 In conclusion, I made a new track order of events with all of my thoughts on it. Also, I love the sport of track and field, thanks for reading this guys.

Link Here>My Athletics order of events