440yd or 400m tracks used in 1960's, US and Europe?

[rhymans]

As GH noted, Ekkehard zue Megede and I would have picked up the splits from TN for Ryun.

I'm fairly sure that no video of the whole race is in the public domain, though I do remember watching the race on BBC TV

As far as 400m tracks pre-1970 in the US are concerned, it may be that the Echo Summit track used for the68 OT was a 400m circuit - though of no relevance to 1500m marks

[cubehead]

The only video of the race I can find is this....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=de...&v=WhkjIrzTiEA

I don't know if it means anything but lane 1 looks wider than the other lanes....a track converted from 440 to 400, with the identical straights would have curves of radius 14 inches less....

[Dilan Esper]

The only video of the race I can find is this....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=de...&v=WhkjIrzTiEA

I don't know if it means anything but lane 1 looks wider than the other lanes....a track converted from 440 to 400, with the identical straights would have curves of radius 14 inches less....

Check the 220 yard stripe on the backstretch, and the 200 meter start markings, which are set apart from and in front of it. It's a 440 yard track.

Also, I love the announcer telling us that Ryun's win will deter Keino from challenging him at 1500 meters in the 1968 Olympics. LOL.

[cubehead]

Check the 220 yard stripe on the backstretch, and the 200 meter start markings, which are set apart from and in front of it. It's a 440 yard track.

Also, I love the announcer telling us that Ryun's win will deter Keino from challenging him at 1500 meters in the 1968 Olympics. LOL.

Yes I agree with that.... lanes 2 and out are 440........but lane 1 I believe is 400 meters.

I really don't want to go back and forth on this....what gets me is the T&FN people then weren't idiots....so if it was a 440 track they would have taken and printed the 110 splits....but they didn't.... they have 100 splits....which make zero sense on a 440 track....and looking at the video I think they moved the curb for that meet and left the outer lanes alone....which makes the most reasonable scenario with the evidence we have.

[Trickstat]

ps—unless it was in Britain, it would boggle my mind to find that there was a yard track anywhere in Europe at any point in the sport's history.

British athletics went metric in 1969 (too early for me to remember first-hand). I think that was the year the new synthetic 400m track at Crystal Palace (South London) opened and became the country's main facility in place of White City (West London). White City was built for the 1908 Olympics and would have been a 440 yard track (at least after those Olympics(?)).

In the 1970s and early 1980s, most tracks used by local clubs in the UK were still cinder (ash). It used to seem odd that a large number of these had 7 lanes which seemed strange. This made sense once I learnt that these would have been 6 lane 440 yard tracks that were widened on the inside to become 400m tracks.

[rhymans]

While it's certainly true that the UK went metric in 1969 [definitely not too early for me to remember], it's also true that dual meets after the USA-GBR match of 1963 were held over metric distances at the White City [though the AAA was held over imperial distances through 1968]

[Trickstat]

While it's certainly true that the UK went metric in 1969 [definitely not too early for me to remember], it's also true that dual meets after the USA-GBR match of 1963 were held over metric distances at the White City [though the AAA was held over imperial distances through 1968]

That is true, I have seen results (in my parents' old Athletics Weeklys) of dual meets from 1966 and 1967 where races were held there over metric distances. Domestic meetings were all imperial (e.g. AAA, Inter-Counties).

[Halfmiler2]

Franklin Field went metric in 1976.

I believe the USA high school rulebook went metric (and adopted the stupid 1600 and 3200 meter distances) in the late 1970s. High School tracks converted over the years after. Many of them had been cinder 440 tracks, and converted to 400 tracks with Tarten, Mondo etc. thereafter.

[Dilan Esper]

Franklin Field went metric in 1976.

I believe the USA high school rulebook went metric (and adopted the stupid 1600 and 3200 meter distances) in the late 1970s. High School tracks converted over the years after. Many of them had been cinder 440 tracks, and converted to 400 tracks with Tarten, Mondo etc. thereafter.

The HS conversion happened in the early 1980's. I'm pretty sure I saw Jeff Nelson of Burbank win the California state 2 mile in about 1979 in Sacramento, and I remember Arcadia running 1500's and 3000's for a couple of years because they went metric before the state did.

There's nothing stupid about the 1600 and 3200, though. 4 laps and 8 laps of the track, and they at least are roughly comparable to miles and 2 miles.

Theres a lot stupid about the 1500. One of the smartest decisions ever made by a track and field governing body in this country was the decision of HS track to reject the awful, dumb, un-American 1500 meters in favor of a more sensible "metric mile" that ordinary people who are not track nuts can understand and relate to 4 minutes.

[gh]

Can't speak to when the NFSHSAA made the rule change, but the California State Meet first ran the 1600 in '80.