The 1986 China Relay Race broke records Source: Xinhua News Agency
Relay running is the only collective sport in athletics. It is a relay team composed of several people, each of whom runs a certain distance, passes it with a baton or relay belt, and cooperates with each other to run the entire track and field event.
1
There are two main theories about the origin of relay running.
Among them, one theory evolved from the relay transport of timber by black Africans.
A large part of Africa is close to the equator and has a tropical rainforest climate with lush vegetation.
While the lush vegetation brought enough wood to Africans, it also brought some difficult problems to solve.
The local forest is thick, the terrain is complex, the roads are rough, and it is too tiring for one person to transport the cut wood, and it takes a very long time.
So people at that time adopted the method of relay, and carrying wood was no longer just the work of one person, but one person moved a distance and then handed it over to another person.
They race each other's speed to see who moves fast and how much they do.
This not only allows for the quick transportation of wood, but also enhances communication with each other and brings some fun to the boring logging life.
Another theory has to do with the Portuguese fleet.
Legend has it that in the seventeenth century, a Portuguese warship went out on a mission.
After the sailors came ashore, they found that the local residents were gathered in a square, and several people in the middle were running, surrounded by a circle of residents.
A sailor walked over to them and asked them what they were doing, and the resident replied that they were playing a fun game.
Portuguese fleet
The participants were divided into several groups of 4 people, one person in each group holding an empty altar, and after the start of the competition, the person holding the empty altar quickly ran to the water altar 50 meters away, poured the water into the empty altar, and then ran back with the empty altar to the second person in the group.
And so on until the whole group finishes running, and the first runner wins.
Later, The Portuguese sailors brought the game to Europe and changed it, replacing the altar with a wooden stick, which soon became an activity in schools and later evolved into a relay race in athletics.
Both claims have some credibility, but the specific origins of relay running are not yet conclusive.
2
Relay running is officially classified as a track event from the end of the nineteenth century, when the rules of the race were different from today, and the baton receiver needed to run in the 20-meter relay area to receive the baton from the passer.
At the 4th Olympic Games in 1908, relay events first appeared, but the regulations at that time were not perfect, and the distances run by the four athletes were not equal.
In 1912, the Fifth Olympic Games were held in Sweden.
It was also at this Olympic Games that the men's 4x100m and 4x400m relays were officially listed as Olympic events.
At that time, there were 8 teams in the men's 4x100m, but only two teams were taken in the end, and the United States and Sweden won the championship and runner-up.
British Games 4X100m relay Bolt led Jamaica to the championship
The women's relay race came to the world stage late.
In 1928, the women's 4x100m relay officially became the Olympic event, Canada won the championship with a time of 48 seconds 4, and four years later, the United States won the cup in 47 seconds.
The women's 4×400m relay was included in the Olympic competition in 1972.
Relay runners must hold the baton for their own specified distance and must complete the baton relay within a relay zone of 30 meters.
The men's 4×100m relay world record is the 36.84 seconds set by Jamaica at the 2012 London Olympics.
The women's 4×100m relay world record is the 40.82 seconds set by the United States at the 2012 London Olympics.
The world record in the men's 4×400m relay was 2:54.29 set by the United States at the 1993 World Championships in Athletics.
The women's 4×400m relay world record was set by the Soviet Union in 1988 in Seoul, South Korea, in 3:15.17.
3
As far as China is concerned, because of its size and technology.
The overall level of Chinese sprinters is far from the world level, and it is still impossible to compete with the world's strongest teams.
However, it cannot be ignored that after long-term development, China's relay running sport has achieved great success.
In the men's 4x100m relay final in 2015, the Chinese team ran a good time of 38.01 seconds, second only to Jamaica, and won the silver medal at the World Championships for the first time in history.
Su Bingtian and his teammates in the 4x100m 4x100m at the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games
In the 4×100m relay of the Tokyo Olympic Games held last year, the Chinese team successfully won a bronze medal and created brilliance again!
The image comes from the Internet
Text: New Media Center
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Organizer: Hebei Provincial Sports Bureau
Producer: Guo Lijun
Editor's proofreading: He Wanxuan