Most track and field events are measured in meters.
Meter runs are a series of runs in recreational, amateur, scholastic, and professional track and field ranging from 55 meters to 10,000 meters. Meter runs are contested in the Olympics and world championships each year, and are competed on both indoor and outdoor circular tracks.
Short Sprints
Short sprints are anything between 55 and 200 meters. The 55 meter dash and 60 meter dash are only run indoors. The 150 meter dash is competed occasionally in special outdoor events. As of July 2010, Usain Bolt of Jamaica holds the 100 (9.58 seconds on 8/16/08) and 200 (19.19 on 8/20/08) meter dash world records, both set during the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Long Sprints
Long sprints range in distance from 300 meters to 600 meters. The most commonly contested event--and only Olympic event--in this sub-genre is the 400 meter dash. The world record 400 is held by Michael Johnson of the United States, a 43.18 run in 1999.
Middle Distance
Middle distance races include everything from 800 meters up to 3,000 meters. The 1,000 is run in college competitions, but is not common elsewhere. The 1,200 is run as the first leg of the distance medley relay. The 2,500 is run only in middle school cross country. The 3,000 is an NCAA event and run in international competition, but not in the Olympics. The 800 (world record of 1:41.1 by Denmark's Wilson Kipketer on 8/24/97) and 1,500--often considered the "metric mile" (world record 3:26 by Morocco's Hicham El Gueroujj on July 14, 1998) are contested in the Olympics.
Long Distance
Long distance races range from the 5,000 meters to 10,000 meters, each of which are contested in the Olympics. The 4,000 is a common distance in youth cross country races, the 6,000 is run by college women in cross country and the 8,000 is run by college men. The world 5k and 10k records are both held by Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia, who has run times of 12:37 (May 5, 2004) and 26:17 (Aug. 26, 2005), respectively.
Hurdle Races
Hurdle meter races are run over many distances between 60 and 3,000 meters. The 60 is only run indoors. The 110 (for men) and 100 (for women) are run in the Olympics, as are the 400 meter hurdles and the 3,000 meter steeplechase.
Tags: meter dash, from meters, from meters meters, meters meters, contested Olympics, cross country, world record