"Ancient History Of Athletics"

Athletics has an ancient history. For the ancient man or woman to survive, they had to hunt for food. In doing so they had to throw stones or spears at animals in order to kill them for food. The very same throwing techniques were used to defend them against the enemy or predators.

The ancient man or woman often had to travel vast distances to hunt for food, and when they had the target in sight, they had to move fast to capture it, or to avoid it from escaping. In their endeavours, they had to negotiate hostile terrain and often had to jump far or high to be able to reach the targeted objective or to move to a safer environment.

The need to determine who is the fastest, the fittest or the strongest already started with the ancient man. Originally, only men were allowed to engage in activities, now labelled as athletics. The evolution of athletics did not all happen at the same time or at the same place.

Until fairly recently, it was dangerous for both participant and spectator during athletics events. Incidents of officials, athletes and spectators being beheaded by a hammer throw implement, penetrated by a javelin or falling to their death from an elevated platform were common occurrences in ancient athletics.

According to cave drawings from the Stone Age, animals were originally used as hurdles. Later hurdles were used, but the construction of the hurdles was robust and contact was avoided due to the injuries risk involved. When hurdling was introduced to the Olympic Games in Athens in 1896 the construction and design of the hurdles became less dangerous for athletes to make contact with.

Steeple Chase running regularly took place during the middle ages. Soldiers were required to run on the walls of the castle from one steeple (the spire of the castle tower) to another steeple to remain fit during times that the castle was besieged by the enemy. It often developed into a competition with death defying results.

In ancient time, in Long Jumping, the athlete was required to hold weights while jumping in a dug up and levelled area from a standing position. The athlete was allowed to jump from an elevated take-off area.

The practice of jumping with weights from an elevated area often lead to serious injuries and broken limbs. The athlete was also allowed to take more than one step during the landing process. This form of landing where more than one stride could be taken after landing was one of the reasons why Triple Jumping as a sport started.

In Shot Put during ancient times it was required of the athlete to throw a stone with a weight of 7.26 kg as far as possible from a square approximately 2m (7 foot) wide drawn on the ground. These rules were still practiced during the 1st Olympic Games in 1896.

In Discus Throw the athlete was required to throw from a standing position, a small wagon wheel or a discus shaped object from a square area of approximately 2.5m. The Hammer Throw evolved from Discus Throw and came as a result of athletes trying to throw a wheel from a standing position further by attaching a rope to the wheel. First recordings of Hammer Throw were made in the early 1800’s when athletes tried to swing a wagon wheel attached to a rope as far as possible. In the early 1600’s a form of “Sledge” Throw competition existed which required swinging and then throwing a sledge attached to a rope. The sling shot used by David to slaw Goliath also refers to a form of Hammer Throw. The most common Discus Throw technique was to stand sideways and swing the “Hammer” over a straight line in the same manner that a pendulum swings in a “Grandpa” clock.

A spear was used in ancient times as a weapon to kill the enemy or to hunt for food. Originally it was required from an athlete to throw a spear from horseback or a raised platform to a target. The thrower was not allowed to fall to the ground after delivering the Javelin. In some competitions the Javelin Thrower was required to throw a Javelin from both arms simultaneously and the winner was the athlete with the best average distance. The Javelins often landed among the spectators. Later Javelin Throw evolved to a run-up with the javelin landing in a prescribed landing area. The modern day Javelin Throw technique evolved in the mid 1950’s.