Background of Athletics

Since the beginning of the Commonwealth Games in 1930 Athletics has been one of the core sports to the program. Athletics can be broken into four groups,

Track events: sprits, middle and long distance running, hurdling and relays. Field events: javelin, discus, hammer throw, pole vault, long and triple jump. Road events and combined events: triathlon, heptathlon (women) and decathlon (men).  The programme for athletics has reminded much the same throughout the years with only some minor adjustments. In 1970 metric units were introduced to measure distances, this lead to a number of events that were measured in imperial units being discounted and replaced with similar events that were measured in metric units. Although there are separate programs for men and women, since 2006 the women’s program has been almost identical to the men’s with the exception of the men’s 50km walk being discontinued in 2010 and replaced with the women’s 3000m Steeplechase.  The men’s athletics programme has remained much the same for the past 4 games with the last events added in 1998 being the 20km and 50km race walks. A total 35 different events have been held in the men’s athletic competition a total of 34 different events in the women’s competition. One significant change to athletics was the introduction of Para-sports in 2002, although the inclusion of events in this category has been inconsistent over the three games where they have been included.