I am wondering if anybody can tell us when and why athletics started running around an oval and thought anti-clockwise was the way to go? Or is it just what happen and thats why it is or an american thing (they drive anti-clock on a round-a-bout compared to Aust/UK where they drive clockwise).
Food for thought! Any rationale anybody?
And does the track is always north south in both the northern and southern hemisphers
In Queensland (Australia) the UQ, QEII, USQ, Townsville, Nudgee Tracks run North to South. The Gold Coast runs South to North. The Toowoomba Track runs West to East and The Runaway Bay Track runs East to West.
They all tried to capture the wind factor I think.
Also, most tracks are near citys where the roads go north-south and east-west. Also, engineers and architects are anal and don’t like to be skewed.
Could be right, I thought it had something to do with the sun, imagine the throwers throwing into the sun.
I looked up the IAAF Track and Facilities manual, it is all about uniformity, also found this regarding the 200m. Hope they don’t mind it is a copy and paste.
On occasion in the World Cup in Athletics there are 9 teams requiring 9 oval
lanes. This is the maximum number of oval lanes that should be provided at a facility
as otherwise there is too much advantage gained by the athlete in the outside lane in
a 200m race over the athlete in the inside lane. Further the outside lane could infringe
the World Record rule that states the record should be made on a track, the radius of
the outside lane of which shall not exceed 50m.
It is permissible to have any number of sprint lanes on the straights.
budgets, money and politics play a large role in where a track is located and how it has been designed. European meets sometimes set up competitions for both directions ( double the equipement ) so they ensure the best possible result for the athletes.
Track and field in NA is not a primary focus in terms of revenue compared to football in the USA or soccer in Europe.