The sport divides into five families. Sprints cover the 100m, 200m and 400m, plus the sprint relays. Middle and long distance runs from 800m through 1500m, 5000m and 10,000m to the marathon, with the 3000m steeplechase as a specialist event. Hurdles include the 110m (100m for women) and the 400m hurdles. The jumps are long jump, triple jump, high jump and pole vault.
Usain Bolt of Jamaica holds the men's 100m world record at 9.58 seconds, set at the 2009 Berlin World Championships, and the 200m record at 19.19 seconds from the same meeting — both untouched for over fifteen years. During that 100m he reached a peak speed of around 44 km/h.
Pick two names from this sport’s all-time list. The larger number in each shared stat is highlighted.
| Stat | Usain Bolt | Carl Lewis |
|---|
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The sport divides into five families. Sprints cover the 100m, 200m and 400m, plus the sprint relays. Middle and long distance runs from 800m through 1500m, 5000m and 10,000m to the marathon, with the 3000m steeplechase as a specialist event. Hurdles include the 110m (100m for women) and the 400m hurdles. The jumps are long jump, triple jump, high jump and pole vault.
Usain Bolt of Jamaica holds the men's 100m world record at 9.58 seconds, set at the 2009 Berlin World Championships, and the 200m record at 19.19 seconds from the same meeting — both untouched for over fifteen years. During that 100m he reached a peak speed of around 44 km/h.
Since 2010, a single false start means immediate disqualification, with no warning — a stricter rule introduced to speed up televised sprint starts and end the gamesmanship of deliberate early moves. A start is judged false if an athlete leaves the blocks before the gun or reacts within 0.100 seconds of it, since sports science holds that no human can hear and react faster than that.
It is a combination of factors rather than any single gene. Many top runners come from highland regions above 2,000 metres, where a lifetime at altitude boosts oxygen-carrying capacity. A culture of running long distances to school from childhood builds an aerobic base early, and specific East African populations appear to have physiological advantages such as slender lower limbs that make running economical.
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