Event Guide - Athletics

Athletics is very much the jewel in the Olympic crown and for most sports fans is the very essence of the Summer Games.

Athletics is classified as just one sport but in fact comprises a number of track and field disciplines - Running, Walking, Jumping and Throwing.

In all there are 47 events - 24 men's and 23 women's.

The full list is: Men's: Track (100 m, 200 m, 400 m, 800 m, 1,500 m, 5,000 m, 10,000 m, 110 m hurdles, 400 m hurdles, 3,000 m steeplechase, 4 x 100 m relay, 4 x 400 m relay); Jumping (high jump, pole vault, long jump, triple jump); Throwing (shot put, discus, hammer, javelin); the decathlon and Road events which take place outside the stadium (Marathon, and 20 km and 50 km road walk).

Women's: Track (100 m, 200 m, 400 m, 800 m, 1,500 m, 5,000 m, 10,000 m; 100 m hurdles, 400 m hurdles, 3,000 m steeplechase, 4 x 100 m relay, 4 x 400 m relay), Jumping (high jump, pole vault, long jump, triple jump); Throwing (shot put, discus, hammer, javelin); the heptathlon and the Road events (Marathon and 20 km road walk ).

There is no 50km road walk for women, who also compete in the heptathlon rather than the decathlon, but otherwise the men's and women's events mirror each other. Up until 1992, women raced in the 3,000m but that has been abandoned in favour of the 5k.

Structures vary among individual disciplines. Competitors in the shorter running events can expect to have to negotiate a number of heats, while the marathon and other long distances are one-offs. In the throwing and jumping events, the athletes must come through a qualification round, after which their best attempt is taken as their final mark. There are also combination events - decathlon for men and heptathlon for women - in which athletes accrue points over a number of disciplines. Both men and women also compete in two relays - the 4x100m and the 4x400m.

History:

No event at the Olympics has more history than Athletics. From the very first Olympic Games in 776BC to the revival of the modern Games in 1896, Athletics has always been part of the Olympic Games. Running events of various lengths are comparable, though not identical, to disciplines at the ancient Olympics, while the javelin, discus and long jump, while not contested individually, were part of an early pentathlon.

The first events for women were not held until the 1928 Games in Amsterdam when the 100m, 4x100m relay, 800m, high jump and discus were added. With the inclusion of the women's 3000m steeplechase at Beijing 2008, the number of events for women will increase to 23, just one behind the men, who also contest the 50km walk.

In modern times, athletics has been the cornerstone of the Olympics, with the 100 metres still considered the blue riband event of the games. The sport has provided some of the games' most enduring events and images: Jesse Owens in 1936, Carl Lewis' four golds in 1984 and Michael Johnson's double in 1996 among them.

Another infamous moment from track and field was Ben Johnson's steroid-fuelled gold in 1988 - the highest-profile example of a drug problem which has plagued the sport in recent years. The United States have always been the dominant force in athletics (or Track and Field as they would have it), with more than 700 medals claimed in modern Olympic history. No other nation has yet reached 200.

Olympic Greats:

Flying Finn Paarvo Nurmi has a case as the greatest ever Olympian. The middle and long-distance ace won nine Olympic gold medals in six different events at the Antwerp Games of 1920, Paris 1924 and Amsterdam in 1928.

The only other athlete to win the same event four times in a row is American Al Oerter, who achieved the feat in the discus in Melbourne 1956, Rome 1960, Tokyo 1964 and Mexico City 1968. Another American, Ray Ewry won eight gold medals in the standing jumping events in Paris 1900, St Louis 1904 and London 1908.

Jesse Owens, with four gold medals under the gaze of the Nazi hierarchy at Berlin 1936 deserves more than a mention, while Michael Johnson is seen by many as a rival to Nurmi and Lewis for his incredible 200m/400m double in 1996 in Atlanta - the only man to achieve the feat.

Seb Coe and Daley Thompson also achived greatness on the Olympic stage at the games of 1980 and 1984, Coe for his 1500m double and Thompson, who won double decathlon gold and was undoubtedly the world's best athlete at the time.

Sprinter Fanny Blankers-Koen is surely the finest female Olympian. 'The Flying Housewife' from Holland was the heroine of the 1948 Olympics in London with four golds and was voted female athlete of the last century. The 30-year-old mother of two won gold in the 100m, 200m, 80m hurdles and 4x100m.

Best of British:

UK Athletics performance director Dave Collins has set a target of five medals but injuries to some key performers may make that an unlikely prospect.

It is all a far cry from the days when we wondered whether it would be Seb Coe or Steve Ovett bringing home the bacon.

Coe could be regarded as Britain's greatest Olympian. He remains the only man to have successfully defended his 1500m crown, won first in Moscow when he came back from the disappointment of losing out to Ovett in his favourite event, the 800m, and then repeated at Los Angeles.

But it was not the number of medals Coe won which sets him apart from the rest. It was the way he won them, with elegance and a style unrivalled before or since in middle-distance running.

Daley Thompson was the finest athlete of his time and won two decathlon golds at Moscow and then LA, while Linford Christie stunned the world with his 100m triumph in Barcelona in 1992.

Kelly Holmes must also make the list for her 800m and 1500m double four years ago. She is the only woman to achieve that feat.

Ones to Watch:

Britain has its best chance of a medal in the women's 400m, and perhaps even two. Christine Ohuruogu returned from her 12-month ban for missing three drugs tests to win the World Championships in Osaka last year, narrowly beating team-mate Nicola Sanders into second place.

American Sanya Richards remains the favourite for Beijing - she missed Osaka after finishing fourth in the American trials - but the British pair will be confident of challenging for medals.

And 1,500m runner Andy Baddeley has emerged as a surprise candidate to follow in the footsteps of Sebastian Coe, Steve Ovett and Steve Cram following his victory in the Dream Mile in Oslo.

The 100 metres final won't last even 10 seconds, but it promises to be the highlight of the Games after Usain Bolt, with his astonishing world record at the end of May, set up a three-way battle with Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell.

Ever since American ace Gay crushed Powell at last year's world championships, when the then Jamaican world record holder slumped to third place, their re-match in Beijing had been highlighted as the most eagerly anticipated clash at the Games.

But then along came Bolt, who in only his fifth contest over the distance at the Reebok Grand Prix in New York, not only demolished his fellow countryman's nine month old mark by two-hundredths-of-a-second with a time of 9.72seconds, but also decisively streaked ahead of Gay.

It promises to be quite a race.

Team GB:

Men:

100m: Simeon Williamson, Tyrone Edgar, Craig Pickering
200m: Marlon Devonish, Christian Malcolm, Alex Nelson
400m: Martyn Rooney, Andrew Steele
800m: Michael Rimmer
1500m: Andy Baddeley, Tom Lancashire
5000m: Mo Farah
3000m Steeplechase: Andrew Lemoncello
110m hurdles: Andrew Turner, Allan Scott
High Jump: Germaine Mason, Tom Parsons, Martyn Bernard
Marathon: Dan Robinson
Pole Vault: Steve Lewis
Long Jump: Greg Rutherford, Chris Tomlinson
Triple Jump: Larry Achike, Nathan Douglas, Phillips Idowu
Decathlon: Daniel Awde
4x100m: Harry Aikines-Aryeety, Tyrone Edgar, Craig Pickering, Simeon Williamson, Rikki Fifton
4x400m: Michael Bingham, Richard Buck, Martyn Rooney, Andrew Steele, Rob Tobin, Dale Garland

Women:

100m: Jeanette Kwayke, Laura Turner, Montell Douglas
200m: Emily Freeman
400m: Lee McConnell, Christine Ohuruogu, Nicola Sanders
800m: Marilyn Okoro, Jenny Meadows, Jemma Simpson
1500m: Lisa Dobriskey, Susan Scott, Stephanie Twell
5000m: Jo Pavey
10,000m: Jo Pavey, Kate Reed
3000m steeplechase: Helen Clitheroe, Barbara Parker
400m hurdles: Natasha Danvers
100m hurdles: Sarah Claxton
Marathon: Paula Radcliffe, Mara Yamauchi, Liz Yelling
20km walk: Johanna Jackson
Pole Vault: Kate Dennison
Long Jump: Jade Johnson
Discus: Philippa Roles
Hammer: Zoe Derham
Javelin: Goldie Sayers
Heptathlon: Kelly Sotherton, Julie Hollman
4x100m: Emma Ania, Montell Douglas, Jeanette Kwayke, Anyika Onuora, Laura Turner, Ashlee Nelson
4x400m: Lee McConnell, Christine Ohuruogu, Nicola Sanders, Donna Fraser, Vicki Barr

Medal Hope - Christine Ohuruogu

Medal Hope - Andy Baddeley