What is the deepest event in track today?

Bullet the Blue Sky wrote:

Steeplechase: 70 cm (2.3 ft) deep. Every other event is contested on or above the track surface.

Okay, beat me to it.

Added some more events:

10000 1164

400 1165

400h 1166

3000sc 1173

5000 1175

200 1184

110h 1188

800 1189

1500 & 100 (tie, not including Gay) 1196

Gay's world-leading time is still on the list, so including that would make the 20th 100m time worth 1199 points.

I can read. Lately I see more and more Crossfit coverage in the T&F/athletics section of newspapers. I think they see Crossfit slowly replacing "old school" track and field.[/quote]

So, besides not being able to read you're stupid, too?

It doesn't matter what ESPN, NBC, ABC, CBS show to Americans.

Track will always be track and, if you've watched a Diamond League Meet, you'd see that it is incredibly popular.

Because Americans have the sports attention span of gnats (so they can watch a 5 second football play) is the only reason track is not more popular in the USA.

Buffalo Orange wrote:

I looked at the IAAF yearly lists by performer. Here's a ranking by the 20th performer in each event I felt like looking up:

10000 1164

400 1165

5000 1175

800 1189

1500 1196

So I'd say the OP was right on, but the 800 isn't far behind.

here's what i have so far. i checked iaaf for top 2013 times based on 1202 points, which happened to be 1:43.99 for 800m.

FOR MEN

0-5 athletes: Hammer, Javelin, Discus, Shot, Long Jump, High Jump, 3000m, 400m.

6-10 athletes: Triple Jump, Pole Vault, 1/2 marathon, 10000m, 5000m, 200m, 400m H, 800m

11-15 athletes: 3000m st, 1500m

16-20 athletes: 110m H, 100m

(30) athletes: marathon

so for the men, the marathon wins by a landslide with 30 guys in 2013. it's a bit unfair because this counts results from january until now, whereas track results only started to count in march ish (after indoor).

800m had 8 guys btw. 5k/10k would both have way more if people actually ran that for time instead of place.

the hammer had ZERO guys btw. throws were the worst depth by far

okay, now for the women next.

Outside agitator wrote:

Bullet the Blue Sky wrote:

Steeplechase: 70 cm (2.3 ft) deep. Every other event is contested on or above the track surface.

Okay, beat me to it.

Haha. Beat me to it as well.

I didn't know the IAAF listed results for marathons on a track.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

ok i finished up the womens lists

i hope somebody actually is reading this...i've wasted hours this morning lol

ok because the women are so much less deep then the men, i won't use the same numbering system.

#athletes = those who have met 1202 pts on IAAF table (=4:00.49 1500m)

ZERO athletes: 3000m, triple jump

1-5 athletes: 200m, 800m, 1500m, 5000m, 10000m, marathon (3), 3000m st, high jump, pole vault, long jump, shotput, discus, hammer, javelin

6-9 athletes: 400m, 100m H, 400m H

10+ athletes: 100m (11), 1/2 marathon (11)

note: the marathon standard for 1202 pts was 2:23:06. if you stretched to just 2:23:59, you now have 15 athletes under the mark. so there were 12 women with a marathon of 2:23:07-2:23:59. pretty deep

COMBINED MEN + WOMEN PER EVENT:

top events:

marathon (30 men, 3 women)

100m (19 men, 11 women)

110/100m H (16 men, 9 women)

1/2 marathon (8 men, 10 women)

note: i didn't count any combined events or road races other than 1/2 and full marathons. i figured that none of them are contested very often by july 31st so i could ignore them

also ignored 1000m, 2000m, 2000m st and any walking events

off the top of my head:

women's 1500 - aregawi, dibaba, simpson, obiri, and martinez are all pretty legit

women's 100 - fraser-pryce, okagbare, ahoure, jeter, and gardner have all been performing well

men's pole vault - laviellenie and the cast of german guys have been putting up good marks

For the last couple of years it has w/o a doubt been the men’s 110h and then the men's shot put.

Last year's women's 200m was the most competitive line up in any event I have ever seen. What come close is perhaps some of the mile races during the early to late 80s; Moorcroft, Aouita, Cram, Bile, Boit, Coe, Maree, Ovett, Scott, Walker, Flynn, Morceli, Elliott and Spivey, etc. All of these athletes’careers crossed paths and they raced each other frequently and you never know who was going to win. The best time in the mile this year is 3:49, it is amazing that they were running almost as fast as they are running now close to 30 years ago.

There is no way you can say the 800m is deep when 2 of the best athletes are not racing. And, last year's 800m depth was primarily in that one Olympic race. For the last 3 years if has been David versus everyone else.

This year it is probably the 110h, although no one has run fast, but you have a half dozen athletes capable of running 13 or better.

Last year's women’s 200m had the most depth and without question was the most competitive race I have seen. In one race you had the current Olympic and WC 100/200/400 gold medalists and multiple Olympic and WC silver medalists. You had the women who had run the 4th fastest 100m in history and the women who had run the 5th fastest 200m in history. In lanes 1 through 8, you had the top ranked women in the world that year. The winner had to beat out several athletes who had run much faster than her in the 100m and an athlete who had run much faster than her in the 400m. 3rd place in that race was 22.1, which would have won all but 2 Olympics or WCs. The winner had to beat a 10.64, 10.70 and a 10.76 100m sprinter. The NCAA record holder and perhaps the greatest 200m sprinter in NCAA history did not even make the final. I think winning that one race will defined Felix's career more than any other accomplishment.

reed wrote:

ok i finished up the womens lists

i hope somebody actually is reading this...i've wasted hours this morning lol

Yup, we're out here. Great work. Nice to see statistics on a thread like this, not just guesses.

SwissFamilyKnobinson wrote:

Has anyone ever run a marathon on the track? I think that would be very deep.

I've heard that the best strategy for this is to let yourself get lapped, then come back and win the race.

Beat me to the joke. +1

Bullet the Blue Sky wrote:

Steeplechase: 70 cm (2.3 ft) deep. Every other event is contested on or above the track surface.

The 1500 for both men and women for sure!!!!!!