Spints Events 

 

The sprints are all-out efforts over the entire distance run. Outdoors the sprints are  metric distances of 100, 200, and 400 m. Sprinters use a crouch start in which, after being commanded to get "on your marks" by the starter, the contestant kneels with one knee on the ground and both hands resting behind the starting line. On the "get set" command, the sprinter raises the knee from the ground in anticipation of the gun. When it fires, the runner will accelerate as quickly as possible from the starting line. To help to with this, runners are given  something to push off against, devices known as starting blocks are used.

In the longer sprints — 200,400  the races are run in assigned lanes for the entire circumference of the track. To ensure fairness for all participants, the start is staggered so that runners farther out from the inside lane start farther ahead of the contestants to their left, who have a smaller circumference to run around; as a result all runners travel the same distance.

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