All About 100, 200, 400, 800 M Run (Track Event Basic): What You Need to Know About?

We are explaining here everything you need to know about the events that make up track meets.

This article helps you to get up to the speed on watching track and field like a real athletic sport fan. here you’ll find some track event basics, an overview of all the world championship events as well as each event’s unique characteristics, and world and world championship records for each race and field event.

The Basic of Track Event.

One lap on the inside lane of a conventional track is 400 meters, which is just less than 8 feet short of a quarter mile. As race distances became standardized internationally, 440-yard (quarter-mile) tracks, which were the standard in the United States until recent decades, were phased out. Four laps of an outdoor track equals 1600 meters—this is 9.3 meters, or just more than 30 feet, short of a mile.

Track and field’s governing body, World Athletics, has established standards for the shape of tracks. The two straightaways are 84.39 meters long, and the two semi-circle turns have a radius of 36.5 meters. The straightaway where races finish is called the homestretch. The straightaway on the other side of the track is called the backstretch. The first curve is called the near turn, and the second curve is called the far turn.

Nearly all modern tracks have a synthetic surface. Two of the most common types are sold under the names Mondo (made of synthetic rubber) and Tartan (made of polyurethane).

Below are the events that are contested at the Olympics (held every four years), the World Championships (usually held every two years, in odd-number years).

Running Events

100 meters

The winners of the shortest race in the Olympics are considered the fastest man and woman in the world. The race is run in a straight line along the homestretch.

Although false starts—one or more runners starting before the gun is fired—can happen in any race, they are most common in the 100. Sensors in the starting blocks used by sprinters tell referees if a runner’s hands have left the ground or feet have left the blocks. Runners are disqualified after one false start.

World records
Women: 10.49 (Florence Griffith-Joyner, United States, 1988)
Men: 9.58 (Usain Bolt, Jamaica, 2009)

Olympic records
Women: 10.61 (Elaine Thompson Herah, Jamaica, 2021)
Men: 9.563 (Usain Bolt, Jamaica, 2012)

200 meters

This race consists of half a lap of the track, starting on the end of the backstretch. Runners must stay in their assigned lane. As a result, the race uses a staggered start—runners in the outside lanes start farther up the track—to account for the varying distances around the track from each lane.

World records
Women: 21.34 (Florence Griffith-Joyner, United States, 1988)
Men: 19.19 (Usain Bolt, Jamaica, 2009)

Olympic records
Women: 21.34 (Florence Griffith-Joyner, United States, 1988)
Men: 19.30 (Usain Bolt, Jamaica, 2008)

400 meters

Considered the longest sprint, the 400 consists of one lap of the track. As in the shorter sprints, runners stay in their assigned lane the whole race. As in the 200, the start is staggered so that each runner covers the proper distance.

Because of the staggered start, it can be difficult to tell who is ahead. By the time the runners enter the homestretch, with about 100 meters to go, they’ve run close to the same distance, making it possible to determine the leaders.

World records
Women: 47.60 (Marita Koch, East Germany, 1985)
Men: 43.03 (Wade van Niekerk, South Africa, 2016)

Olympic records
Women: 48.25 (Marie-Jose Perec, France, 1996)
Men: 43.03 (Wade van Niekerk, South Africa, 2016)

800 meters

This two-lap race has a staggered start, but after 100 meters the contestants break for the inside lanes and run the race as a pack.
The 800 requires equal parts raw speed and endurance. It’s the only middle- or long-distance race in which elites typically run the first half of the race faster than the second. The balance of energy demands in the 800 is such that starting a little slower than goal pace doesn’t result in a reserve of speed for the finish, as is the case in longer races.

World records
Women: 1:53.28 (Jarmila Kratochviloa, Czechoslovakia, 1983)
Men: 1:40.91 (David Rudisha, Kenya, 2012)