On your marks, get set, go!

Swagga T or send via e-mail. This is the new beginning and new look check of cool sport.
Meanwhile, it’s the second week of school and the first term is always met with mixed feelings from students. Some love it for it allows them a chance to showcase their talents as far as athletics is concerned.

For some the reverse is also true, the lack of the talent makes them hate the athletics term. Even Wiz Khalifa sang,  “Work hard and play hard”.
Checking on first term sporting activities, athletics comes to mind and, oh boy, this one is compulsory.

First week, we wrote about that sport and since it dominates this season we have received a lot of responses leading us to focus on it again this week. Here are few facts on athletics

Athletics is an exclusive collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing and walking. The most common types of athletics competitions are track and field, road running, etc.

For the sake of this discussion we will focus on track and field since they are the only ones that are popular with schools. The simplicity of the competitions and the little need for expensive equipment, makes athletics one of the most keenly competed sports in the world.

Athletics is mostly an individual sport, with the exception of relay races and competitions which combine athletes’ performances for a team score, such as cross country. Organised athletics competitions can be traced to ancient Greece with the first Olympics in 776BC.

Modern track and field competitions emerged in the late 19th century and were typically contested by athletes who were representing rival educational institutions, military organisations and sports clubs.

Participating athletes may compete in one or more events, according to their specialities. Men and women compete separately. The sport is defined by the venue in which the competitions are held – the track and field stadium.

A variety of running events are held on the track which falls into three broad distance categories: sprints, middle-distance and long-distance track events. Relay races feature teams comprising four runners each, who must pass a baton to their team-mate after a specified distance with the aim of being the first team to finish.

Hurdling events and the steeplechase are a variation upon the flat running theme in that athletes must clear obstacles on the track during the race.

The field events come in two types – jumping and throwing competitions. In throwing events, athletes are measured by how far they hurl an implement, with the common events being the shot put, discus, javelin, and hammer throw.

There are four common jumping events: the long jump and triple jump are contests measuring the horizontal distance an athlete can jump, while the high jump and pole vault are decided on the height achieved. Combined events, which include the decathlon (typically competed by men) and heptathlon (typically competed by women), are competitions where athletes compete in a number of different track and field events, with each performance going toward a final points tally.

Though this is one is normally not common in schools with a few exceptions.
Well, on your marks, get set, go . . . the cool team will visit schools to see how they are preparing for the athletics term.
So keep your fingers crossed next week will be at your school, and you will be in our next week’s issue of Cool Sport.