Why did American coaches insist OWENS to take part in 400m relay race ?
Answers
Explanation:
BRITANNICA
Relay race
RACE FORMAT
WRITTEN BY: The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
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Alternative Title: relay
Relay race, also called Relay, a track-and-field sport consisting of a set number of stages (legs), usually four, each leg run by a different member of a team. The runner finishing one leg is usually required to pass on a baton to the next runner while both are running in a marked exchange zone.
Passing the baton
Passing the baton
AP
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03:02
Relay race
QUICK FACTS
KEY PEOPLE
Michael Phelps
Ryan Lochte
Jesse Owens
Marion Jones
Missy Franklin
Libby Trickett
Yelena Vyalbe
Allyson Felix
Michael Johnson
Carl Lewis
NOTABLE HONOREES
Cathy Freeman
RELATED TOPICS
Swimming
Running
Baton
In most relays, team members cover equal distances: Olympic events for both men and women are the 400-metre (4 × 100-metre) and 1,600-metre (4 × 400-metre) relays. Some non-Olympic relays are held at distances of 800 m, 3,200 m, and 6,000 m. In the less frequently run medley relays, however, the athletes cover different distances in a prescribed order—as in a sprint medley of 200, 200, 400, 800 metres or a distance medley of 1,200, 400, 800, 1,600 metres.
Bob Beamon (U.S.) breaking the world record in the long jump at 8.90 metres (29.2 feet) during the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City.
READ MORE ON THIS TOPIC
athletics: Relays
The relays involve four runners per team, each member carrying a baton for 25 percent of the total distance…
The relay method of racing was started in the United States about 1883. The original method was for the men running the second quarter of the course each to take over a small flag from the first man as he arrived, before departing on their own stage of the race, at the end of which they, in their turn, handed on their flags to the awaiting next runners. The flags, however, were considered cumbersome, and for a time it was sufficient for the outgoing runner to touch or be touched by his predecessor.
The baton, a hollow cylinder of wood or plastic, was introduced in 1893. It is carried by the runner and must be exchanged between lines drawn at right angles to the side of the track 10 metres or 11 yards on each side of the starting line for each leg of the relay. In sprint relays (400 and 800 metres) a 1964 rule change permitted the runner receiving the baton to start his run 10 metres or 11 yards before the zone, but he had to take the baton within the zone itself.
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LEARN MORE in these related Britannica articles:
Bob Beamon (U.S.) breaking the world record in the long jump at 8.90 metres (29.2 feet) during the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City.
athletics: Relays
The relays involve four runners per team, each member carrying a baton for 25 percent of the total distance…
ancient Olympic Games
Olympic Games
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Cathy Freeman: The Heart of a Nation
Cathy Freeman’s silver medal in the 400-metre run at the 1996 Games in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., introduced…
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