This is a awesome game. so give it try!!!!!!!
click on the guy to play
2:40 AM
5:00 AM
Perform crazy stunts in this downhill mountain bike racer!
2:32 AM
- coordinate all persons and processes necessary and set each in motion at the right time.
- follow through so that no step or link in reaching that final result had been omitted or forgotten.
- Maintain the required level of quality.
- Set time limits and see that each phase is done on time.
- Demand cooperation from all people involved.
- Do a ' Plus' job - just a little more than the minimum called for.
12:49 AM
There was a great scientist who was miserable at maths. he was the English physicist and chemist Micheal Faraday(22 September 1791 – 25 August 1867). Almost all great inventions and discoveries are made by using mathematical principles. Faraday gets the credit for many achievements, but he rarely used maths.he was very imaginative and inquisitive. The inquisitiveness led him to investigate electric current.But as he was poor at maths he was unable to express his findings.He used his imaginative skills to link electricity and magnetism and to work on how electricity affects substances chemically.He was great scientist but he won't be able to pass any of today's science exams if he were living today. 
12:46 AM
Take an amazing journey in a far away place. Fight the evil enemies and return the Princess to the King of the southern lands.
12:42 AM
Surf for all you're worth. Pull off jumps & tricks
5:17 PM
Logo Design Software for Windows and Mac OSX!
Create incredible logo designs that look like a Photoshop guru spent hours laboring over! It's like having your own logo design studio... without the studio
With The Logo Creator logo design software - you'll get a portfolio full of logo designs that you can modify and customize yourself... for far less than what a logo maker will charge. Includes 50 free logo creator fonts
With The Logo Creator - you can sell the logos you create
- That's right! If you're a graphics or logo design company, logo maker, webmaster, small business owner, entrepreneur or service provider ... you can sell the logos you create to your own customers
The Corporate Logo Collection
80 professionally created logos that you can mix, match and manipulate ... in minutes! 80 Corporate logos for under $40! Mix, match and manipulate the logos to create hundreds more
Create dozens of new business logos from just one of the templates! Over 300 built in logo elements and 50 built in fonts! (of course, you can also use your own fonts and images)
The MEGA PAK
ALL of our logos in one huge easy to install package
Over 380 professionally designed logos that you can mix, match and manipulate ... in minutes! 380 logos, over 800 logo elements to mix, match and manipulate.
7:44 PM
cursor keys - Move
space - Pick up treasure
Grab your mask and head for the sea bed. Collect as much treasure and pearls as you can and get back to the boat before your air runs out. Watch out for the sharks!!!!!
7:14 AM
Batman and Robin learn about the exploits of Jonah Hex an Old West crimefighter who once dealt with the immortal Ra's Al Ghul.
Writers: Joe R. Lansdale
Bruce Timm
Paul Dini
Kevin Altieri
Director: Kevin Altieri
Stars: Loren Lester (Dick Grayson / Robin)
Kevin Conroy (Bruce Wayne / Batman)
Recurring Role: David Warner (Ra's Al-Ghul)
Guest Star: Malcolm McDowell (Arcady Duvall)
Michael Bell (Airman Captain)
William Bryant (Sheriff)
Bill McKinney (Jonah Hex)
Elizabeth Montgomery (Barmaid)
Patrick Leary (Governor)
6:13 PM
Electronic mail(e-mail) messages transmitted and received by digital computers through a network. An e-mail system allows computer users on a network to send text, graphics, and sometimes sounds and animated images to other users.
On most networks, data can be simultaneously sent to a universe of users or to a select group or individual. Network users typically have an electronic mailbox that receives, stores, and manages their correspondence. Recipients can elect to view, print, save, edit, answer, forward, or otherwise react to communications. Many e-mail systems have advanced features that alert users to incoming messages or permit them to employ special privacy features. Large corporations and institutions use e-mail systems as an important communication link between employees and other people allowed on their networks. E-mail is also available on major public online and bulletin board systems, many of which maintain free or low-cost global communication networks.
Read more Entry>>
On most networks, data can be simultaneously sent to a universe of users or to a select group or individual. Network users typically have an electronic mailbox that receives, stores, and manages their correspondence. Recipients can elect to view, print, save, edit, answer, forward, or otherwise react to communications. Many e-mail systems have advanced features that alert users to incoming messages or permit them to employ special privacy features. Large corporations and institutions use e-mail systems as an important communication link between employees and other people allowed on their networks. E-mail is also available on major public online and bulletin board systems, many of which maintain free or low-cost global communication networks.
7:52 AM
Director:David Yates
Writers:Steve Kloves (screenplay)
J.K. Rowling (novel)
Release Date:
Belgium :19 November 2008
Egypt : 19 November 2008
Argentina: 20 November 2008
Germany : 20 November 2008
Greece : 20 November 2008
Netherlands : 20 November 2008
Russia : 20 November 2008
Singapore: 20 November 2008
Brazil : 21 November 2008
Denmark: 21 November 2008
Finland : 21 November 2008
Italy : 21 November 2008
Japan: 21 November 2008
Mexico: 21 November 2008
Norway : 21 November 2008
Sweden: 21 November 2008
Turkey : 21 November 2008
UK :21 November 2008
USA : 21 November 2008
France: 26 November 2008
Croatia: 27 November 2008
Bulgaria: 28 November 2008
Estonia : 28 November 2008
Lithuania: 28 November 2008
Poland : 28 November 2008
Romania: 28 November 2008
Spain : 28 November 2008
Venezuela: 28 November 2008
Australia : 11 December 2008
Also Known As (AKA)
Harry Potter y el misterio del príncipe Argentina / Spain / Venezuela
HP and the HBP International (informal short (English title)
Hari Poter i polukrvni princ Serbia
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: An IMAX USA (IMAX version)
3D Experience
Harry Potter e il principe mezzosangue Italy
Harry Potter e o Enigma do Príncipe Brazil
Harry Potter e o Príncipe Misterioso Portugal
Harry Potter und der Halbblut-Prinz Germany
Harry Potter y el misterio del principe International (Spanish title)
The Half-Blood Prince USA (short title)
Story
Harry Potter's sixth year at Hogwarts turns out to be quite the exciting year. First off is the arrival of a new teacher at Hogwarts, Horace Slughorn, who is a bit more useful to Harry than he realizes. Next, Harry obtains a Potions book which used to be belong to the very mysterious Half-Blood Prince. Harry finds that the Half-Blood Prince's ancient scribbles are written along the margins of almost every page, giving Harry advice on how to improve greatly on his Potions work, and also teaching him a few helpful (and dangerous) spells along the way.
Amidst this, Harry is starting private lessons with Professor Dumbledore, during which Harry learns the dark secrets of Voldemort's past, hoping that they could use these secrets to find a way to defeat him.
Harry's year gets even more stressful with the suspicious actions of Draco Malfoy, who has been sneaking around the school doing, so Harry assumes, Voldemort's bidding. Harry quickly becomes determined, and slightly obsessed, to find out exactly what Malfoy has been up to and putting and end to it.
Yet, during this time, Harry and his friends go through daily life, busy with school work, Quidditch, (in which Harry has been made captain of the team) and of course, romance. Ron has found a new girlfriend, Lavender Brown, a perky (if not obnoxious) Gryffindor student, and Hermione is not happy about it. Ron and Hermione's friendship takes a toll throughout the school year and Harry, as usual, is stuck in the middle. Harry, meanwhile, is facing a romantic dilemma of his own: he realizes he is falling for his best friend's sister, Ginny Weasley, who is unfortunately dating Harry's classmate, Dean Thomas. Harry's pining for Ginny and Ron's hilarious relationship with Lavender give this story a large dose of reality.
Throughout all the school drama, however, the obvious darkness of Voldemort's impending rise to power is always apparent. The incredible action-packed climax is sure to leave the audience stunned and, inevitably, prove that you shouldn't trust everybody who you think is good and also prove that not everyone can manage to survive.
Trailer
10:22 PM
Fallout 3 is an action role-playing game currently under development by Bethesda Game Studios.It will be the third major game in the Fallout series, which has also spawned the spin-offs Fallout Tactics and Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel. Fallout 3 will take place in the year 2277, 36 years after the setting of Fallout 2 and 200 years after the nuclear war that devastated the game's world.The game will be released in North America on October 7, 2008.| Developer(s) | Bethesda Game Studios |
| Publisher(s) | Bethesda Softworks,ZeniMax Media |
| Designer(s) | Emil Pagliarulo (Lead Designer) Todd Howard (Executive Producer) |
| Composer(s) | Inon Zur |
| Series | Fallout |
| Engine | Gamebryo engine |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 |
| Release date | NA October 7, 2008 EU October 3, 2008 |
| Genre(s) | Post-apocalyptic Action RPG |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
| Rating(s) | OFLC: RC (Refused Classification) |
| Media | Blu-ray Disc, DVD |
| Input methods | Keyboard and mouse, Gamepad |
Description:
Vault-Tec engineers have worked around the clock on an interactive reproduction of Wasteland life for you to enjoy from the comfort of your own vault. Included is an expansive world, unique combat, shockingly realistic visuals, tons of player choice, and an incredible cast of dynamic characters. Every minute is a fight for survival against the terrors of the outside world – radiation, Super Mutants, and hostile mutated creatures. From Vault-Tec, America’s First Choice in Post Nuclear Simulation.
Story:
Vault 101 – Jewel of the Wastes. For 200 years, Vault 101 has faithfully served the surviving residents of Washington DC and its environs, now known as the Capital Wasteland. Though the global atomic war of 2077 left the US all but destroyed, the residents of Vault 101 enjoy a life free from the constant stress of the outside world. Giant Insects, Raiders, Slavers, and yes, even Super Mutants are all no match for superior Vault-Tec engineering. Yet one fateful morning, you awake to find that your father has defied the Overseer and left the comfort and security afforded by Vault 101 for reasons unknown. Leaving the only home you’ve ever known, you emerge from the Vault into the harsh Wasteland sun to search for your father, and the truth.
Key Features:
* Limitless Freedom! – Take in the sights and sounds of the vast Capital Wasteland! See the great monuments of the United States lying in post-apocalyptic ruin! You make the choices that define you and change the world. Just keep an eye on your Rad Meter!
* Experience S.P.E.C.I.A.L.! – Vault-Tec engineers bring you the latest in human ability simulation – the SPECIAL Character System! Utilizing new breakthroughs in points-based ability representation, SPECIAL affords unlimited customization of your character. Also included are dozens of unique skills and perks to choose from, each with a dazzling variety of effects!
* Fantastic New Views! – The wizards at Vault-Tec have done it again! No longer constrained to just one view, experience the world from 1st or 3rd person perspective. Customize your view with the touch of a button!
* The Power of Choice! – Feeling like a dastardly villain today, or a Good Samaritan? Pick a side or walk the line, as every situation can be dealt with in many different ways. Talk out your problems in a civilized fashion, or just flash your Plasma Rifle.
* Blast ‘Em Away With V.A.T.S.! – Even the odds in combat with the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System for your Pip-Boy Model 3000! V.A.T.S. allows you to pause time in combat, target specific body parts on your target, queue up attacks, and let Vault-Tec take out your aggression for you. Rain death and destruction in an all-new cinematic presentation.
* Mind-Blowing Artificial Intelligence! – At Vault-Tec, we realize that the key to reviving civilization after a global nuclear war is people. Our best minds pooled their efforts to produce an advanced version of Radiant AI, America’s First Choice in Human Interaction Simulation. Facial expressions, gestures, unique dialog, and lifelike behavior are brought together with stunning results by the latest in Vault-Tec technology.
* Eye-Popping Prettiness!* – Witness the harsh realities of nuclear fallout rendered like never before in modern super-deluxe HD graphics. From the barren Wasteland, to the danger-filled offices and metro tunnels of DC, to the hideous rotten flesh of a mutant’s face.
*Protective Eyewear Encouraged.
Trailer
Read more Entry>>
9:08 PM
Publisher: Rockstar Games
Developer: Rockstar North
Genre: Modern Action Adventure
Release Date: Apr 29, 2008 (more)
ESRB: MATURE
ESRB Descriptors: Blood, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Use of Drugs, Use of Alcohol
Game Information
Connectivity: Broadband Only, Scoreboards, Live Aware
Resolution: 720p, Widescreen
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Special Controllers: Headset
Customization: Downloadable Content
Online Modes: Competitive, Cooperative, Team Oriented
Number of Players: 1 Player
Number of Online Players: 16 Online
Technical Support: www.rockstargames.com
Official Site: www.rockstargames.com/IV
CHEATS
Map Locations
Enter the following password into the in-game computers. (NOTE: This URL does not work in a real web browser outside of the game)
Password Effect
www.whattheydonotwantyoutoknow.com Weapon, health, armor, vehicle, pigeon,
ramp/stunt, and entertainment locations
Cell Phone Passwords
At any time during the game, pull out Niko's phone and dial these numbers for the desired effect.
Please note that cheats will affect missions and achievements.
Password Effect
482-555-0100 Restore health, armor, and ammo
362-555-0100 Restore armour
486-555-0100 Get a selection of weapons
486-555-0150 Get a different selection of weapons
267-555-0100 Remove wanted level
267-555-0150 Raise wanted level
468-555-0100 Change weather
359-555-0100 Spawn an Annihiliator
938-555-0100 Spawn a Jetmax
625-555-0100 Spawn an NRG-900
625-555-0150 Spawn a Sanchez
227-555-0100 Spawn an FIB Buffalo
227-555-0175 Spawn a Comet
227-555-0147 Spawn a Turismo
227-555-0142 Spawn a Cognoscenti
227-555-0168 Spawn a SuperGT
948-555-0100 Song information
Grand Theft Auto IV Unlockables
Achievements
Perform the required task to unlock the achievement.
Unlockable How to Unlock
King of QUB3D Beat the High Score in QUB3D - 15 points
Fed The Fish Complete the mission "Uncle Vlad" - 5 points
Driving Mr. Bellic Unlock the special ability of taxi - 10 points
Off The Boat Complete the first mission - 5 points
One Hundred And Eighty In a game of darts score 180 with only 3 darts - 10 points
Pool Shark Beat a friend at pool - 10 points
Finish Him Complete 10 melee counters in 4 minutes - 15 points
Genetically Superior Come first in 20 singleplayer street races - 25 points
Wheelie Rider Do a wheelie lasting at least 500 feet on a motorbike - 30 points
Gobble Gobble Score 3 strikes in a row, a turkey, in 10-pin bowling - 10 points
Rolled Over Do 5 car rolls in a row from one crash - 30 points
Walk Free Lose a 4 star wanted level by outrunning the cops - 50 points
Courier Service Complete all 10 package delivery jobs - 10 points
Retail Therapy Unlock the ability to buy guns from a friend - 10 points
Chain Reaction Blow up 10 vehicles in 10 seconds - 20 points
One Man Army Survive 5 minutes on 6 star wanted level - 40 points
Lowest Point Complete mission "Roman's Sorrow" - 5 points
Order Fulfilled Complete all 10 Exotic Export orders - 10 points
Manhunt Complete the most wanted side missions from police computer - 15
points
Cleaned The Mean Streets Capture 20 criminals through the police computer - 20 points
It'll Cost Ya Complete a taxi ride without skipping from one island to another - 5 points
Sightseer Fly on all helicopter tours of Liberty City - 5 points
Warm Coffee Successfully date a girl to be invited into her house - 5 points
That's How We Roll! Unlock the special ability of helicopter - 10 points
Half Million Reach a balance of $500,000 - 55 points
Impossible Trinity Complete mission "Museum Piece" - 10 points
Full Exploration Unlock all the islands
You Got The Message Deliver all 30 cars ordered through text messages - 20 points
Dare Devil Complete 100% of the unique stunt jumps - 30 points
Assassin's Greed Complete all 9 assassin missions - 20 points
Endangered Species Collect every hidden package - 50 points
Under the Radar Fly underneath the main bridges in the game that cross water
with a helicopter - 40 points
Dial B for Bomb Unlock the special ability of phoning for a bomb to be placed - 10 points
Gracefully Taken Complete mission "I'll Take Her" - 10 points
Liberty City (5) After you meet all friends, the ones left alive like you
above 90% - 20 points
No More Strangers Meet all random characters - 5 points
That Special Someone Complete the mission "That Special Someone" - 10 points
You Won! Complete the final mission - 60 points
Liberty City Minute Complete the story missions in less than 30 hours - 30 points
Key To The City Achieve 100% in "Game progress" statistic - 100 points
Teamplayer Kill 5 players who are not in your team, in any ranked multiplayer
team game - 10 points
Cut Your Teeth Earn a personal rank promotion in multiplayer - 5 points
Join The Midnight Club Win a ranked multiplayer race without damaging your vehicle
too much and have damage enabled - 10 points
Fly The Co-op Beat Rockstars time in ranked versions of Deal Breaker, Hangman's NOOSE, and Bomb da Base II - 15 points
Taking It For The Team Be on the winning team in all ranked multiplayer games - 10 points
Top Of The Food Chain Kill 20 players with a pistol in a ranked multiplayer deathmatch - 10 points
Top The Midnight Club Come first in 20 different ranked standard multiplayer races - 20 pointsWanted
Wanted Achieve the highest personal rank in multiplayer - 20 points
auf Wiedersehen Petrovic Win all ranked multiplayer variations, all races and
Cops 'n Crooks, as both sides - 30 points
Let Sleeping Rockstars Lie Kill a Rockstar developer in a ranked multiplayer
match - 10 points
Unlockables
Unlockable How to Unlock
Annihilator Helicopter Kill all 200 Flying Rats
Rastah Color Huntley SUV complete 10 Package Delivery missions
Remove Ammo Limit Get 100% completion
Friendship Bonuses
By gaining friendship with the following people can benefit you in many ways.
Unlockable How to Unlock
Chopper Ride (He will pick you up in his helicopter) Gain 70% Friendship with Brucie
Extra Help (A car of gang members will be sent to help you out) Gain 60% friendship with Dwayne
Boom? (Call Packie for him to make you a car bomb) Gain 75% friendship with Packie
Discount Guns (Buy weapons at a cheaper price from Lil Jacob) Gain 60% friendship with Little Jacob
Free Ride (Call for a taxi) Gain 60% friendship with Roman
Remove Up to 3 Wanted Stars (Call Kiki and select "Remove Wanted") Get 80%
Relationship Status with Kiki
Health Boost (Call Carmen and select "Health Boost") Get 80% Relationship Status with Carmen
50% off for all Clothing Stores Get 80% Relationship Status with Alex
Grand Theft Auto IV Easter Eggs
The Heart of Liberty City
First, you'll have to have access to Happiness Island. Once you're able to go there legally, find the Helicopter Tours (which is directly east of Happiness Island) and steal a helicopter. Fly to Happiness Island and over the Statue of Liberty, then jump out of the helicopter at the statue's feet. You should land on the topmost tier of the statue, which is basically a square platform with a door in the center of each side. Run around the platform until you see a door with a plaque on either side of it that reads, "No Hidden Content Here." It may seem like you cannot go through the door, but you can-- it doesn't open, you simply walk THROUGH the door. Inside, you'll find an empty room with a tall ladder. Climb it, and when you reach the top, look up; there is a gigantic beating heart, held in place by chains.
Grand Theft Auto IV Secrets
Easy money
Go to an ATM, then cause a traffic jam to the area. Wait for someone to take money from the ATM, then kill him or her. Make sure to block any nearby roads so the ambulance cannot get to the murdered victim. Take the money they dropped on the ground. Then, run a short distance away, and go back. The money should have respawned on the ground. You can repeat this as many times as desired. You can also kill more people taking their money from the ATM to increase the amount of money that respawns.
Repairing the engine
If the vehicle you are driving breaks down and the engine will not start, call any number from your phone book, and your engine should start again.
Get a Statue of Liberty T-shirt
Go to the statue of liberty and walk up to the second level. Walk through the door (it doesn't swing open, just go through it) and the game will load for a second and you will walk out with a new t-shirt with the statue of liberty on it.
Mr. tasty + GTA Theme Cheat
When inside a Mr. Tasty Ice Cream truck, one of the the songs the truck plays is called the GTA Theme, in a cycle order it is usually played after Flight of the Bumblebee. While playing the song, call ZiT, and a text message will confirm telling you the name of the song. As soon as the message is answered, a Cheat Activated confirmation will appear, and the cheat will appear in the Cheat section in your phone.
Effects: Cheat gives you full healith and Body Armor
Game Review
Trailers
6:32 AM
born April 7, 1770, Cockermouth, Cumberland, Eng.
died April 23, 1850, Rydal Mount, Westmorland
Major English Romantic poet and poet laureate of England (1843–50).His Lyrical Ballads (1798), written with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped launch the English Romantic movement.
Wordsworth was born in the Lake District of northern England, the second of five children of a modestly prosperous estate manager. He lost his mother when he was 7 and his father when he was 13, upon which the orphan boys were sent off by guardian uncles to a grammar school at Hawkshead, a village in the heart of the Lake District. At Hawkshead Wordsworth received an excellent education in classics, literature, and mathematics, but the chief advantage to him there was the chance to indulge in the boyhood pleasures of living and playing in the outdoors. The natural scenery of the English lakes could terrify as well as nurture, as Wordsworth would later testify in the line “I grew up fostered alike by beauty and by fear,” but its generally benign aspect gave the growing boy the confidence he articulated in one of his first important poems, “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey . . . ,” namely, “that Nature never did betray the heart that loved her.”
Wordsworth moved on in 1787 to St. John's College, Cambridge. Repelled by the competitive pressures there, he elected to idle his way through the university, persuaded that he “was not for that hour, nor for that place.” The most important thing he did in his college years was to devote his summer vacation in 1790 to a long walking tour through revolutionary France. There he was caught up in the passionate enthusiasm that followed the fall of the Bastille, and became an ardent republican sympathizer. Upon taking his Cambridge degree—an undistinguished “pass”—he returned
in November 1791, Wordsworth visited Revolutionary France and became enthralled with the Republican movement. He fell in love with a French woman, Annette Vallon, who in 1792 gave birth to their child, Caroline. Because of lack of money and Britain's tensions with France, he returned alone to England the next year.The circumstances of his return and his subsequent behavior raise doubts as to his declared wish to marry Annette but he supported her and his daughter as best he could in later life. During this period, he wrote his acclaimed "It is a beauteous evening, calm and free," recalling his seaside walk with his wife, whom he had not seen for ten years. At the conception of this poem, he had never seen his daughter before. The occurring lines reveal his deep love for both child and mother. The Reign of Terror estranged him from the Republican movement, and war between France and Britain prevented him from seeing Annette and Caroline again for several years. There are also strong suggestions that Wordsworth may have been depressed and emotionally unsettled in the mid 1790s.
With the Peace of Amiens again allowing travel to France, in 1802 Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy visited Annette and Caroline in France and arrived at a mutually agreeable settlement regarding Wordsworth's obligations.
The three or four years that followed his return to England were the darkest of Wordsworth's life. Unprepared for any profession, rootless, virtually penniless, bitterly hostile to his own country's opposition to the French, he knocked about London in the company of radicals like William Godwin and learned to feel a profound sympathy for the abandoned mothers, beggars, children, vagrants, and victims of England's wars who began to march through the sombre poems he began writing at this time. This dark period ended in 1795, when a friend's legacy made possible Wordsworth's reunion with his beloved sister Dorothy—the two were never again to live apart—and their move in 1797 to Alfoxden House, near Bristol. There Wordsworth became friends with a fellow poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and they formed a partnership that would change both poets' lives and alter the course of English poetry.
Their partnership, rooted in one marvelous year (1797–98)in which they “together wantoned in wild Poesy,” had two consequences for Wordsworth. First it turned him away from the long poems on which he had labored since his Cambridge days. These included poems of social protest like Salisbury Plain, loco-descriptive poems such as An Evening Walk and Descriptive Sketches (published in 1793), and The Borderers, a blank-verse tragedy exploring the psychology of guilt (and not published until 1842). Stimulated by Coleridge and under the healing influences of nature and his sister, Wordsworth began in 1797–98 to compose the short lyrical and dramatic poems for which he is best remembered by many readers. Some of these were affectionate tributes to Dorothy, some were tributes to daffodils, birds, and other elements of “Nature's holy plan,” and some were portraits of simple rural people intended to illustrate basic truths of human nature.
Many of these short poems were written to a daringly original program formulated jointly by Wordsworth and Coleridge, and aimed at breaking the decorum of Neoclassical verse. These poems appeared in 1798 in a slim, anonymously authored volume entitled Lyrical Ballads, which opened with Coleridge's long poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and closed with Wordsworth's “Tintern Abbey.” All but three of the intervening poems were Wordsworth's, and, as he declared in a preface to a second edition two years later, their object was “to choose incidents and situations from common life and to relate or describe them . . . in a selection of language really used by men, . . . tracing in them . . . the primary laws of our nature.” Most of the poems were dramatic in form, designed to reveal the character of the speaker. The manifesto and the accompanying poems thus set forth a new style, a new vocabulary, and new subjects for poetry, all of them foreshadowing 20th-century developments.
The second consequence of Wordsworth's partnership with Coleridge was the framing of a vastly ambitious poetic design that teased and haunted him for the rest of his life. Coleridge had projected an enormous poem to be called “The Brook,” in which he proposed to treat all science, philosophy, and religion, but he soon laid the burden of writing this poem upon Wordsworth himself. As early as 1798 Wordsworth began to talk in grand terms of this poem, to be entitled The Recluse. To nerve himself up to this enterprise and to test his powers, Wordsworth began writing the autobiographical poem that would absorb him intermittently for the next 40 years, and which was eventually published in 1850 under the title The Prelude, or, Growth of a Poet's Mind. The Prelude extends the quiet autobiographical mode of reminiscence that Wordsworth had begun in “Tintern Abbey” and traces the poet's life from his school days through his university life and his visits to France, up to the year (1799) in which he settled at Grasmere. It thus describes a circular journey—what has been called a long journey home. But the main events in the autobiography are internal: the poem exultantly describes the ways in which the imagination emerges as the dominant faculty, exerting its control over the reason and the world of the senses alike.
The Recluse itself was never completed, and only one of its three projected parts was actually written; this was published in 1814 as The Excursion and consisted of nine long philosophical monologues spoken by pastoral characters. The first monologue (Book I) contained a version of one of Wordsworth's greatest poems, “The Ruined Cottage,” composed in superb blank verse in 1797. This bleak narrative records the slow, pitiful decline of a woman whose husband had gone off to the army and never returned. For later versions of this poem Wordsworth added a reconciling conclusion, but the earliest and most powerful version was starkly tragic.
In the company of Dorothy, Wordsworth spent the winter of 1798–99in Germany, where, in the remote town of Goslar, in Saxony, he experienced the most intense isolation he had ever known. As a consequence, however, he wrote some of his most moving poetry, including the “Lucy” and “Matthew” elegies and early drafts toward The Prelude. Upon his return to England, Wordsworth incorporated several new poems in the second edition of Lyrical Ballads (1800), notably two tragic pastorals of country life, “The Brothers” and “Michael.” These poems, together with the brilliant lyrics that were assembled in Wordsworth's second verse collection, Poems, in Two Volumes (1807), help to make up what is now recognized as his great decade, stretching from his meeting with Coleridge in 1797 until 1808.
One portion of a second part of The Recluse was finished in 1806, but, like The Prelude, was left in manuscript at the poet's death. This portion, Home at Grasmere, joyously celebrated Wordsworth's taking possession (in December 1799) of Dove Cottage, at Grasmere, Westmorland, where he was to reside for eight of his most productive years. In 1802, during the short-lived Peace of Amiens, Wordsworth returned briefly to France, where at Calais he met his daughter and made his peace with Annette. He then returned to England to marry Mary Hutchinson, a childhood friend, and start an English family, which had grown to three sons and two daughters by 1810.
In 1805 the drowning of Wordsworth's favorite brother, John, the captain of a sailing vessel, gave Wordsworth the strongest shock he had ever experienced. “A deep distress hath humanized my Soul,” he lamented in his “Elegiac Stanzas” on Peele Castle. Henceforth he would produce a different kind of poetry, defined by a new sobriety, a new restraint, and a lofty, almost Miltonic elevation of tone and diction. Wordsworth appeared to anticipate this turn in “Tintern Abbey,” where he had learned to hear “the still, sad music of humanity,” and again in the “Ode: Intimations of Immortality” (written in 1802–04; published in Poems, in Two Volumes). The theme of this ode is the loss of his power to see the things he had once seen, the radiance, the “celestial light” that seemed to lie over the landscapes of his youth like “the glory and freshness of a dream.” Now, in the Peele Castle stanzas, he sorrowfully looked back on the light as illusory, as a “Poet's dream,” as “the light that never was, on sea or land.”
These metaphors point up the differences between the early and the late Wordsworth. It is generally accepted that the quality of his verse fell off as he grew more distant from the sources ofhis inspiration and as his Anglican and Tory sentiments hardened into orthodoxy. Today many readers discern two Wordsworth's, the young Romantic revolutionary and the aging Tory humanist, risen into what John Keats called the “Egotistical Sublime.” Little of Wordsworth's later verse matches the best of his earlier years.
In his middle period Wordsworth invested a good deal of his creative energy in odes, the best known of which is “On the Power of Sound.” He also produced a large number of sonnets, most of them strung together in sequences. The most admired are the Duddon sonnets (1820), which trace the progress of a stream through Lake District landscapes and blend nature poetry with philosophic reflection in a manner now recognized as the best of the later Wordsworth. Other sonnet sequences record his tours through the European continent, and the three series of Ecclesiastical Sketches (1822) develop meditations, many sharply satirical, on church history. But the most memorable poems of Wordsworth's middle and late years were often cast in elegiac mode. They range from the poet's heartfelt laments for two of his children who died in 1812—laments incorporated in The Excursion—to brilliant lyrical effusions on the deaths of his fellow poets James Hogg, George Crabbe, Coleridge, and Charles Lamb.
In 1808 Wordsworth and his family moved from Dove Cottage to larger quarters in Grasmere, and five years later they settled at Rydal Mount, near Ambleside, where Wordsworth spent the remainder of his life. In 1813 he accepted the post of distributor of stamps for the county of Westmorland, an appointment that carried the salary of £400 a year. Wordsworth continued to hold back from publication The Prelude, Home at Grasmere, The Borderers, and Salisbury Plain. He did publish Poems, in Two Volumes in 1807; The Excursion in 1814, containing the only finished portions of The Recluse; and the collected Poems of 1815, which contained most of his shorter poems and two important critical essays as well. Wordsworth's other works published during middle age include The White Doe of Rylstone (1815), a poem about the pathetic shattering of a Roman Catholic family during an unsuccessful rebellion against Elizabeth I in 1569; a Thanksgiving Ode (1816); and Peter Bell (1819), a poem written in 1798 and then modulated in successive rewritings into an experiment in Romantic irony and the mock-heroic and colored by the poet's feelings of affinity with his hero, a “wild and woodland rover.” The Waggoner (1819) is another extended ballad about a North Country itinerant.
Through all these years Wordsworth was assailed by vicious and tireless critical attacks by contemptuous reviewers; no great poet has ever had to endure worse. But finally, with the publication of The River Duddon in 1820, the tide began to turn, and by the mid-1830s his reputation had been established with both critics and the reading public.
Wordsworth's last years were given over partly to “tinkering” his poems, as the family called his compulsive and persistent habit of revising his earlier poems through edition after edition. The Prelude, for instance, went through four distinct manuscript versions (1798–99, 1805–06,1818–20,and 1832–39)and was published only after the poet's death in 1850. Most readers find the earliest versions of The Prelude and other heavily revised poems to be the best, but flashes of brilliance can appear in revisions added when the poet was in his seventies.
Wordsworth succeeded his friend Robert Southey as Britain's poet laureate in 1843 and held that post until his own death in 1850. Thereafter his influence was felt throughout the rest of the 19th century, though he was honored more for his smaller poems, as singled out by the Victorian critic Matthew Arnold, than for his masterpiece, The Prelude. In the 20th century his reputation was strengthened both by recognition of his importance in the Romantic movement and by an appreciation of the darker elements in his personality and verse.
William Wordsworth was the central figure in the English Romantic revolution in poetry. His contribution to it was threefold. First, he formulated in his poems and his essays a new attitude toward nature. This was more than a matter of introducing nature imagery into his verse; it amounted to a fresh view of the organic relation between man and the natural world, and it culminated in metaphors of a wedding between nature and the human mind, and beyond that, in the sweeping metaphor of nature as emblematic of the mind of God, a mind that “feeds upon infinity” and “broods over the dark abyss.” Second, Wordsworth probed deeply into his own sensibility as he traced, in his finest poem, The Prelude, the “growth of a poet's mind.” The Prelude was in fact the first long autobiographical poem. Writing it in a drawn-out process of self-exploration, Wordsworth worked his way toward a modern psychological understanding of his own nature, and thus more broadly of human nature. Third, Wordsworth placed poetry at the centre of human experience; in impassioned rhetoric he pronounced poetry to be nothing less than “the first and last of all knowledge—it is as immortal as the heart of man,” and he then went on to create some of the greatest English poetry of his century. It is probably safe to say that by the late 20th century he stood in critical estimation where Coleridge and Arnold had originally placed him, next to John Milton—who stands, of course, next to William Shakespeare.
Major works
* Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems (1798)
o "Simon Lee"
o "We Are Seven"
o "Lines Written in Early Spring"
o "Expostulation and Reply"
o "The Tables Turned"
o "The Thorn"
o "Lines Composed A Few Miles above Tintern Abbey"
o "The Daffodils"
* Lyrical Ballads, with Other Poems (1800)
o Preface to the Lyrical Ballads
o "Strange fits of passion have I known"
o "She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways"
o "Three years she grew"
o "A Slumber Did my Spirit Seal"
o "I travelled among unknown men"
o "Lucy Gray"
o "The Two April Mornings"
o "Nutting"
o "The Ruined Cottage"
o "Michael"
* Poems, in Two Volumes (1807)
o "Resolution and Independence"
o "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud"
o "My Heart Leaps Up"
o "Ode: Intimations of Immortality"
o "Ode to Duty"
o "The Solitary Reaper"
o "Elegiac Stanzas"
o "Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802"
o "London, 1802"
o "The world is too much with us"
* The Excursion (1814)
o "Prospectus to The Recluse"
* Ecclesiastical Sketches (1822)
o "Mutability"
* The Prelude (1850, posthumous)
o The Prelude; or, Growth of a Poet's Mind
5:44 PM
Behold her, single in the field,
Yon solitary Highland Lass !
Reaping and singing by herself ;
Stop here, or gently pass !
Alone she cuts and binds the grain,
And sings a melancholy strain ;
O listen ! for the vale profound
Is overflowing with the sound.
No nightingale did ever chant
More welcome notes to weary bands
Of Travellers in some shady haunt,
Among Arabian sands :
A voice so thrilling ne’er was heard
In spring-time from the cuckoo-bird,
Breaking the silence of the seas
Among the farthest Hebrides.
Will no one tell me what she sings ? –
Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow
For old, unhappy, far-off things,
And battles long ago :
Or is it some more humble lay,
Familiar matter of to-day ?
Some natural sorry, loss, or pain,
That has been, and may be again ?
Whate’er the theme, the maiden sang
As if her song could have no ending ;
I saw her singing at her work,
And o’er the sickle bending ; –
I listened, motionless and still ;
And, as I mounted up the hill,
The music in my heart I bore,
Long after it was heard no more.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Word meanings
Highland Lass : A girl who lives in the highlands of (mountain regions) of Scotland
Reaping : Cutting down and gathering a crop such as corn or rice
Melancholy strain : Sad song
Vale profound : Deep valley
Arabian sands : The deserts of Arabia(the Middle East)
Farthest Hebrides : the most remote group of islands that lie to the north-west of Scotland
plaintive numbers : Sad music
Humble lay : Ordinary song
Sickle : A tool for cutting grass and grain crops.It has a short handle and a blade shaped like a hook.
About the poet
born April 7, 1770, Cockermouth, Cumberland, Eng.
died April 23, 1850, Rydal Mount, Westmorland
major English Romantic poet and poet laureate of England (1843–50). His Lyrical Ballads (1798), written with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped launch the English Romantic movement.
Wordsworth was born in the Lake District of northern England, the second of five children of a modestly prosperous estate manager. He lost his mother when he was 7 and his father when he was 13, upon which the orphan boys were sent off by guardian uncles to a grammar school at Hawkshead, a village in the heart of the Lake District. At Hawkshead Wordsworth received an excellent education in classics, literature, and mathematics, but the chief advantage to him there was the chance to indulge in the boyhood pleasures of living and playing in the outdoors.For more ...
6:39 AM
Athletics also called track-and-field sports or track and field a variety of competitions in running, walking, jumping, and throwing events. Although these contests are called track and field (or simply track) in the United States, they are generally designated as athletics elsewhere. This article covers the history, the organization, and the administration of the sports, the conduct of competitions, the rules and techniques of the individual events, and some of the sports' most prominent athletes.
Track-and-field athletics are the oldest forms of organized sport, having developed out of the most basic human activities—running, walking, jumping, and throwing. Athletics have become the most truly international of sports, with nearly every country in the world engaging in some form of competition. Most nations send teams of men and women to the quadrennial Olympic Games and to the official World Championships of track and field. There also are several continental and intercontinental championship meets held, including the European, Commonwealth, African, Pan-American, and Asian.
Within the broad title of athletics come as many as two dozen distinct events. These events, generally held outdoors, make up a meet. The outdoor running events are held on a 400-meter or 440-yard oval track, and field events (jumping and throwing) either inside the track's perimeter or in adjacent areas.
In many parts of the world, notably the United States, Canada, and Europe,the sport moves indoors during the winter; because of limited space, some events are modified and several are eliminated altogether.
Also within the general scope of track-and-field athletics come separate but related competitions that are not contested on the track. Cross-country running competition is carried out on various types of countryside and parkland. Marathons and races of other long distances are run on roads, and the long-distance race walks are contested on measured road courses. The rules followed by all organized competitions are established and enforced by the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) and its member body from each nation. The IAAF also ratifies all world records.
History
Origin and early development
There is little in the way of definitive records of athletics' early days as organized sport. Egyptian and Asian civilizations are known to have encouraged athletics many centuries before the Christian era. Perhaps as early as 1829 BC, Ireland was the scene of the Lugnasad festival's Tailteann Games, involving various forms of track-and-field activity. The Olympic Games of Greece, traditionally dated from 776 BC, continued through 11 centuries before ending about AD 393. These ancient Olympics were strictly male affairs, as to both participants and spectators. Greek women were reputed to have formed their own Heraea Games, which, like the Olympics, were held every four years.
Athletics as practiced today was born and grew to maturity in England. The first mention of the sport in England was recorded in 1154, when practice fields were first established in London. The sport was banned by King Edward III in the 1300s but revived a century later by Henry VIII, reputed to be an accomplished hammer thrower.
Modern development
The development of the modern sport, however, has come only since the early 19th century. Organized amateur footraces were held in England as early as 1825, but it was from 1860 that athletics enjoyed its biggest surge to that date. In 1861 the West London Rowing Club organized the first meet open to all amateurs, and in 1866 the Amateur Athletic Club (AAC) was founded and conducted the first English championships. The emphasis in all these meets was on competition for “gentlemen amateurs” who received no financial compensation. In 1880 the AAC yielded governing power to the Amateur Athletic Association (AAA).
The first meet in North America was held near Toronto in 1839, but it was the New York Athletic Club, formed in the 1860s, that placed the sport on a solid footing in the United States. The club held the world's first indoor meet and helped promote the formation in 1879 of the National Association of Amateur Athletes of America (NAAAA) to conduct national championships. Nine years later the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) took over as national governing body, amid reports that the NAAAA was lax in enforcing amateurism.
Athletics was well established in many countries by the late 1800s, but notuntil the revival of the Olympic Games in 1896 did the sport become truly international. Although begun modestly, the Olympics provided the inspiration and standardizing influence that was to spread interest in athletics worldwide. In 1912 the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) was founded, and by the time that organization celebrated its 75th anniversary in 1987 it had more than 170 national members. Its rules applied only to men's competition until 1936, when the IAAF also became the governing body of women's athletics.
Major international competitions before World War II included the Olympics, the British Empire Games, and the European Championships, but after the war athletics experienced its greatest period of growth, taking root especially in the developing countries. By the 1950s world-class athletes from African, Asian, and Latin American nations were enjoying great success at international meets.
Organization and tournaments
Top-level competition in athletics is still restricted to the amateur athlete, although the definition of “amateur” continues to evolve. The IAAF over time has reduced its definition of an amateur athlete to the simplest possible terms: “An amateur is one who abides by the eligibility rules of the IAAF” is the complete rule, allowing for change whenever the federation alters any of its other rules.
Until the 1980s the IAAF attempted to keep its athletes from benefiting financially from the sport. This was always a struggle, however, as star athletes and eager meet promoters managed to circumvent the rules. So did entire nations: eastern European countries provided government aid to athletes, other countries encouraged military personnel to concentrate on track-and-field training, and U.S. athletes received college scholarships in return for their skills.
Financial aid was made acceptable in the 1980s through the use of trust funds. Athletes were permitted to accept payment for appearing in competition, for performing well, for appearing in television commercials, or for other sport-related activities. The money was placed in trust; training expenses could be charged to the fund, with the remaining funds, if any, going to the athlete on retirement from competition. Some athletes were reported to have made several hundred thousand dollars a year under the new system.
The primary functions of the IAAF are to maintain a set of rules that are uniform throughout the world, to approve world records for outdoor and indoor competition, and to promote international athletics. While continuing to administer athletics competition in the Olympic Games, the IAAF began its own quadrennial World Championships in 1983, established World Cup competitions, and established walking, cross-country, marathon and other road races, indoor track and field, and junior competitions.
Each IAAF member nation has its own set of rules and maintains its own set of records in line with international guidelines. The amateur athletic federations of individual countries conduct their own national championships.
In the United States, for example, The Athletic Congress (TAC) alone has the power to select international teams (except for the Olympic team, which is under the jurisdiction of the United States Olympic Committee), toestablish rules, and to accept or reject records. It also conducts the national championships and other competitions. Meets in which participation is restricted to college or university athletes usually are governed by the rules of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), or one of two junior (two-year) college groups. Most secondary schools in the United States come under the aegis of the National Federation of State High School Athletic Associations.
The details of the conduct of athletics competitions vary with the location and the level and type of meet. To a great degree the basic sport has been standardized by the rules of the IAAF. Outdoor track events take place on the 400-metre (about 440-yard) oval running track. Track compositions differ greatly. Once almost all tracks were of natural materials (dirt, clay, cinders, and crushed brick being the most common), but all major competition tracks now are made of synthetic materials. The synthetic track provides more consistent and faster footing in all weather conditions. Field event performers also benefit from improved footing; jumpers and javelin throwers perform on the same materials used for synthetic tracks, while the throwers of the shot, discus, and hammer work in circles made of concrete.
Indoor track meets adapt themselves to widely varying and often limiting conditions. Tracks range in size generally from 150 to 200 metres or 160 to 220 yards and have synthetic surfaces over wood. Some tracks have banked curves, others are unbanked. Cross-country running utilizes any terrain that is available—parks, golf courses, farmland. The prescribed IAAF distance in international races for men is approximately 12,000 metres (7.5 miles) and for women 4,000 metres (2.5 miles). Road events include walking, marathon, and other road runs of widely varying distances.
Meets
Equipment
Every event has items of equipment that are essential to the conduct of the event. All athletes, for example, require shoes that give traction and protection with minimum weight. Other items of equipment include the starting blocks used by sprinters and hurdlers, hurdles, vaulting poles, and the implements employed in the various throwing events.
Timing and measurements
Exacting timing and measurement of performances are a vital part of athletics, not only to determine winners at the meet in question but also to provide marks that can be compared for record purposes. Fully automatic timing, using photography, is required for world records and all major competitions. Timing, once done in fifths of a second and then in tenths, now is done in hundredths of a second. By rule, an aiding wind of more than 2 meters per second (4.473 miles per hour) nullifies a record time in distances up to 200 meters. Metric measurements are required for both track and field events, even in the United States. The only English-measure distance that remains popular is the one-mile run. With the 1987 inauguration of the World Indoor Championships, the IAAF began accepting indoor records.
Presentation
Athletics meets differ greatly in presentation. The typical school, university,or club meet is of one-day duration. Conference meets generally last two days, while national championships require three to four days to accommodate large numbers of athletes. The Olympic Games and world championships are scheduled for eight days of athletics competition.
All track events begin with the firing of a gun. In races of one lap or less the runners remain in their marked lanes for the entire distance. In longer events the runners may ignore the lane markers and run as close to the inside edge of the track as is prudent. The runner whose torso reaches the winning line first is the winner.
Field events have two types of qualifying competitions. In the smaller meets all participants are allowed three attempts, with the top six to nine athletes getting three more. In the larger meets there is a qualifying round from which about 12 athletes advance to the finals, at which stage the remaining competition proceeds in the same manner as in the smaller meets. The exceptions in field event competition are the vertical jumps—the high jump and pole vault. Jumpers are given three tries at each height; three consecutive misses cause elimination.
Although athletics is basically an individual sport, team scoring is sometimes important. Dual meets are always scored, but there are no official scores for multi-team international meets, such as the Olympic Games. Conference and national meets among universities also are scored officially. The points allotted to individual events and places vary from meet to meet. A national competition may award 10 points for first place, 8 for second, and so on. Similarly, an international dual meet awards 5 points for first place, 3 for second, 2 for third, and 1 for fourth. The team with the highest point total wins the meet. Cross-country meets always are scored, with the winner getting 1 point, second place 2 points, etc., the low score winning.
Runners have a chance to compete year-round. The indoor season lasts from January through March; the outdoor competition lasts until June for schools and colleges, with the higher-level individual competitors participating in track through September. In the United States autumn is given over to cross-country running. International cross-country is held in winter.
Conflicts and controversies
Athletics, occupying center stage at all international games, generates its share of conflicts. Until the IAAF's trust-fund system there was continual concern about athletes earning money by violating rules. From about 1970the question of drug usage has been a major issue. Athletes are forbidden to use a number of drugs that are said to improve performance. Testing for such use is required at the major meets, and, while the great majority of athletes tested are found to be free of banned drugs, each year a small number of athletes are found guilty of violating the drug rule and are suspended from competition, usually for 18 months. Most frequently the violators have used anabolic steroids in an attempt to increase muscle size and strength.
Events
As many as 25 events may make up a men's meet; women compete in a few less. The men's track events at championship meets generally include the 100-, 200-, 400-, 800-, 1,500-, 5,000-, and 10,000-meter runs; the 3,000-meter steeplechase; the 110- and 400-meter hurdles; and the 400- and 1,500-meter relays. The field events usually include the high jump, pole vault, long jump, triple jump, shot put, discus throw, hammer throw, and javelin throw. The decathlon, combining 10 track-and-field events, is also featured. Women run much the same schedule, with 100-meter instead of 110-meter hurdles, but do not compete in the steeplechase, pole vault, or hammer throw. They compete in the heptathlon (seven events) rather than the decathlon, and both men and women run the marathon. Women walk up to 10,000 meters and men up to 50,000 meters.
Running
The sprints
The relatively short sprint distances, ranging up to 400 meters, require a sustained top speed. Originally all sprinters started from a standing position, but in the 1880s the crouch start was invented, and it became a rule that sprinters must start with both feet and both hands on the track. The introduction of the adjustable starting block aided the quick start, critical in the sprints.
The current record holder at 100 meters generally is considered to be “the fastest human.” Holding that title have been such champions as Eddie Tolan, Jesse Owens, Bobby Morrow, Bob Hayes, and Carl Lewis (all of the United States), Valeriy Borzov (U.S.S.R.), Linford Christie (U.K.), and Donovan Bailey (Canada). Maurice Greene of the United States set a record time of 9.79 seconds at a 1999 meet in Athens, Greece. Outstanding women sprint champions have included Fanny Blankers-Koen (The Netherlands), who won four gold medals in the 1948 Olympics, Wilma Rudolph (U.S.), who won three in 1960, Marita Koch (East Germany), who was a winner at all three sprint distances, and Florence Griffith Joyner (U.S.), who set world records at 100 and 200 meters in 1988.
The 400 meters is run in lanes all the way; distance is equalized by a staggered start, the sprinters being spaced progressively farther up the track based on the distance their lane is from the inside edge. Outstanding in this event were Lee Evans (U.S.), whose 43.86-second mark remained the world record 20 years after he set it in 1968, Alberto Juantorena (Cuba), whose 44.26-second time in the 1976 Olympics was the fastest without the aid of high altitude, and Michael Johnson (U.S.), whose world record time of 43.18 seconds was set at the 1999 World Championships in Seville, Spain. Jarmila Kratochvilova (Czechoslovakia) won a rare double victory in the women's 400- and 800-meter events at the1983 World Championships.
Middle-distance running
The longer the race, the more endurance is needed. The middle-distance events, in this discussion, range from 800 to 2,000 metres. Some authorities regard the 3,000-metre race as middle-distance.
Middle-distance runners usually are able to perform well at either the shorter or the longer distances. Racing tactics, including pacing, are moreimportant at these than at any other distances. Even though it is no longer a championship event, the mile is still a glamour event. The first athlete to run a mile in less than four minutes—Roger Bannister of England in 1954—captured world attention. A “sub-four” is still a notable time, even though it is now routinely accomplished by the world's top runners. Other great middle-distance runners include Paavo Nurmi (Finland), who won both the 1,500 (the metric “mile”) and 5,000 metres on the same day in the 1924 Olympics, Sebastian Coe (U.K.), who won two Olympic gold medals at 1,500 metres and two silver at 800 metres, Noureddine Morceli (Algeria), who won two world championships and an Olympic gold medal in the 1,500 metres, and Hicham El Guerrouj (Morocco), who set outdoor and indoor world records in the 1,500 metres and the mile. Two Soviet women created memorable middle-distance records. Tatyana Kazankina won five world records, while Lyudmila Bragina established eight. Mary Decker Slaney (U.S.) also won consistently at the middle distances.
Long-distance running
There is some difference of opinion over the dividing line between middle-distance and long-distance runs. The long-distance events considered here are those ranging from 3,000 meters upward; they include the marathon, steeplechase, cross-country, and road runs. The marathon is the longest event for which the IAAF keeps records. Speed becomes an even less important factor in the longer runs, pace and endurance correspondingly more so. The longer the run, the less likely the burst of speed known as the “finishing kick” at the end of the race.
Runners may also overlap the long- and middle-distance events. Nurmi, Gunder Hägg (Sweden), and Said Aouita (Morocco) all set world records at both 1,500 and 5,000 meters. Nurmi won at all distances longer than 1,000 meters except the marathon. Distance runners provide the most prolific record setters, including Nurmi, Ron Clarke (Australia), Kip Keino (Kenya), Haile Gebrselassie (Ethiopia), and Emil Zátopek (Czechoslovakia), the last of whom performed the remarkable feat of winning the marathon and the 5,000- and 10,000-meter races at the 1952 Olympic Games. The longer races for women have been slow to develop, but a number of runners have been able to compete at various distances, including Ingrid Kristiansen (Norway).
The steeplechase combines long-distance running with hurdling, each runner being required to clear seven water jumps and 28 hurdles in a 3,000-meter course. Although hurdling is an important aspect of the event,by far the greatest need is the ability to run the distance. Steeplechase competitors are often specialists, but there are examples of fine distance runners who have successfully overcome more experienced hurdlers. Henry Rono (Kenya), one of the most successful at the steeplechase, also held world records at 3,000, 5,000, and 10,000 meters.
The marathon was a key event at the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, and it has become a major attraction of the Olympics and other international contests. The race originally commemorated the feat of a Greek soldier who in 490 BC supposedly ran from Marathon to Athens to bring news of the Greek victory over the Persians. At 26.22 miles (42,186 meters) the marathon is the longest race of the track meet. Hannes Kolehmainen (Finland) and Zátopek are two of the more memorable marathoners.
Hurdling
The hurdling events combine sprinting with negotiating a series of obstacles called hurdles. Men run the 110-metre high hurdles over 10 barriers 106.7 cm (42 inches) high and 9.14 metres (10 yards) apart. The 400-metre intermediate hurdles also covers 10 hurdles, but 91.4 cm (36 inches) in height and 35 metres (38.29 yards) apart. Women now run both the 100-metre high and 400-metre hurdles. A hurdler may knock down any number of hurdles but is disqualified if he runs out of his lane or uses his hands to knock over hurdles. The object is to make the hurdling action smooth and rhythmic so as not to disrupt forward progress.
High hurdlers need excellent speed, most champions also being good sprinters. An outstanding example is Harrison Dillard (U.S.), who won the 100-metre flat race in the 1948 Olympics and the high hurdles in the 1952 Games. Intermediate hurdlers also combine speed with hurdling ability. Glenn Davis (U.S.), who won both the 1956 and 1960 Olympics, was a world-record breaker on the flat as well as over the hurdles. Edwin Moses (U.S.) virtually revolutionized the event with his unusual 13-stride (between hurdles) technique. He also won two Olympics and achieved a winning streak lasting nearly 10 years.
Relays
The relays involve four runners per team, each member carrying a baton for 25 percent of the total distance before passing it to the next team runner. Two events, the 4 × 100- and 4 × 400-metre relays, are standard. They are included both in low-level dual meets and in the Olympic Games and the IAAF World Championships. Speed is essential in both events, and the ability to pass the baton well is especially crucial in the shorter event, where each runner covers 100 metres. Exchanging the baton while running about 25 miles per hour brings to the event a quality of suspense. Many races have been won or lost by the quality of baton passing. Other relay events—the 4 × 200-, 4 × 800-, and 4 × 1,500-metres—are run much less frequently.
Walking
This event, also called race walking, is relatively minor. Aside from the Olympic and other multinational competitions, it is seldom a part of track meets. Olympic competition is over 20,000 and 50,000 metres, while other distances are used in individual competitions.
Jumping
Men and women compete in four jumping events: the high jump, long jump, triple jump, and pole vault.
The high jump
There is one basic rule for high jumping: the jumper must leave the ground from one foot, not two. The object is to clear a thin bar perched atop two standards, and the jumper remains in the competition as long as he does not have three consecutive misses. Jumpers may enter the competition at any height above the minimum height and are allowed to pass any height as the bar is raised to new levels. Inflated or foam-rubber landing pits have replaced dirt and sawdust pits. The modern pits are of value because jumpers often land on the back of the shoulders and neck.
Jumping styles evolved in the 20th century with techniques called the scissors, eastern cut-off, western roll, and straddle (or belly roll) preceding the Fosbury flop. Named for its inventor, Dick Fosbury (U.S.), the 1968 Olympic champion, the flop involves an approach from almost straight ahead, then twisting on takeoff and going over headfirst with the back to the bar. Charles Dumas (U.S.), a notable example of the straddle jumpers, in 1956 became the first man to clear 7 feet (2.13 metres). Valeriy Brumel (U.S.S.R.) held the high-jump record for 10 years using the straddle jump. A woman jumper, Iolanda Balas (Romania), achieved remarkable feats in the event, establishing 13 world records and a winning streak of 140 meets.
The pole vault
Pole-vaulting is conducted along the lines of the high jump; i.e., vaulters attempt to vault over a crossbar placed on uprights, they have three tries at each height, and they land in an inflated or composition pit.
The vaulter runs down a runway for about 45 metres (150 feet) carrying a pole. After planting the end of the pole in a box that is sunk below ground level, the vaulter leaves the ground and pulls himself upward until he is almost doing a handstand on the pole. He twists as he nears the crossbar and arches over it feet first and face down.
The first poles, of solid ash, cedar, or hickory, were heavy and cumbersome. Once the bamboo pole was introduced in 1904, it was quickly adopted. Records set with bamboo lasted until 1957, when records were set with an aluminum pole and a steel pole; these were followed by the fiberglass pole in the 1960s.
The dominant vaulter of the bamboo era was Cornelius Warmerdam (U.S.), who scored six world records; he was the first vaulter to go over 15 feet (4.6 metres), and he set a record of 15 feet 7.75 inches that lasted for 15 years. The constant improvement of fiberglass poles helped vaulters such as Sergey Bubka (Ukraine) push the record over 20 feet in the 1990s.In the 1990s the IAAF added women's pole vault to the competition roster, and Stacy Dragila (U.S.) became the event's first women's world and Olympic champion.
The long jump
Long jumping, formerly called broad jumping, is the least complicated of the field events. Speed is the most essential ingredient for a successful jump. Jumpers make their approach down the runway at nearly top speed,plant a foot on the takeoff board, and leap into the air. A legal jump requires that no part of the forward foot extend beyond the board. The most popular long-jumping style is called the “hitch-kick,” in which the runner seemingly walks in air.
Three distinct landmarks stand out in the history of long jumping. The first of these was the achievement of Jesse Owens (U.S.), who on May 25, 1935, jumped 8.13 metres (26 feet 8.25 inches), a record that endured for 25 years. The second was Bob Beamon's (U.S.) leap of 8.90 metres (29 feet 2.5 inches), a jump that exceeded the old world record by 55 cm (21.5 inches). The third feat came in1991, when Mike Powell (U.S.) broke Beamon's 23-year record with a jump of 8.95 metres (29 feet 4.5 inches).
Notable among the women jumpers are Heike Drechsler (Germany) and Jackie Joyner-Kersee (U.S.), both of whom leaped over 7 metres (23 feet).
The triple jump
Once known as the hop, step, and jump, the triple jump includes three distinct segments of action. The jumper comes down the runway and bounds off a takeoff board, similar in style to but a little slower than long jumpers. The first segment involves the jumper executing a hop by landing on the same foot from which he took off. Then he takes a step, landing on the other foot, and concludes with a jump into the sand pit.
Among the outstanding competitors, Adhemar da Silva (Brazil) won two Olympics and set five world records; Jozef Schmidt (Poland), also a two-time Olympic champion, set a record in 1960 of 17.03 metres (55 feet 10.5 inches) and was the first to go over the 17-metre barrier; and Viktor Saneyev (U.S.S.R.) had three world records and three Olympic wins and one second place. Women began competing in the triple jump in the mid-1980s.
Throwing
The four standard throwing events—shot, discus, hammer, and javelin—all involve the use of implements of various weights and shapes that are hurled for distance.
The shot put
The putting action is best described as shoving the shot, because the rules require that the arm may not extend behind the shoulders during the putting action. The spherical shot is made of metal. The men's shot weighs 7.26 kg (16 pounds) and is 110–130 mm (4.3–5.1 inches) in diameter. Women put a 4-kg (8.82-pound) shot that is 95–110 mm (3.7–4.3 inches) in diameter.
The putter must launch the shot from within a ring 2.135 metres (7 feet) in diameter and so must gather momentum for the put by a rapid twisting movement. Shot-putters are among the largest athletes in track and field, the most massive ranging from 250 to 300 pounds (113 to 136 kg). Beginning in the 1950s, weight training became a major part of a shot-putter's training program. In that same period the O'Brien style of putting was popularized, with outstanding results. Developed by Parry O'Brien (U.S.), the style involved a 180-degree turn (rather than the usual 90-degree turn) across the ring, getting more speed and momentum into the action. O'Brien was the best exponent of the style, winning three Olympic medals (two gold) and raising the record from 17.95 metres (58 feet 10.75 inches) to 19.30 metres (63 feet 4 inches).
Some athletes have turned to a style in which the putter spins one and a half turns before releasing the shot, a technique developed by Brian Oldfield (U.S.).
The discus throw
Discus throwing is considered by many the classic event of athletics, the Greek poet Homer having made references to discus throwing in the 8th century BC. Modern male athletes throw a 2-kg (4.4-pound) plate like implement from a 2.5-metre (8.2-foot) circle. The discus is launched after the thrower, starting at the back of the circle, has completed one and a half turns. The women's discus weighs 1 kg (2.2 pounds).
Legendary among discus throwers are the feats of Al Oerter (U.S.), the first to throw over 200 feet (61 metres). He won an Olympic gold medal at the 1956 Games as a 20-year-old and at each of the following three Games as well. He also set four world records. A standout among women throwers was Faina Melnik (U.S.S.R.), who set 11 world records.
The hammer throw
The implement used in the hammer throw is not a conventional hammer but a metal ball at least 110 mm (4.3 inches) in diameter attached to a wire, the whole implement being a minimum of 1,175 mm (46.3 inches) inlength and weighing a minimum of 7.2 kg (16 pounds). The handle at the end of the wire opposite from the ball is gripped by the thrower and released after three or four body turns have developed maximum centrifugal force. The throwing circle is slightly smaller than that of the discus. Women's hammer throw was introduced into international competition in the 1990s. The hammer used by women is slightly shorter and weighs a minimum of 4 kg (8.8 pounds).
American athletes of Irish birth or descent totally dominated the event from the 1890s to the 1930s and included John Flanagan, who unofficially set 17 world records and won three Olympic gold medals (1900, 1904, and 1908). After the passing of the Irish dynasty, the power shifted to the eastern Europeans. Among them was Yury Sedykh (U.S.S.R.), who won at the 1976 and 1980 Olympics and raised the record from 80.32 metres (24.5 feet) to 86.74 metres (26.4 feet).
The javelin throw
Javelin throwing involves a spearlike implement that is hurled with an over-the-shoulder motion at the end of an approach run. It is a direct descendant of spear-throwing contests, introduced in the Olympics of 708BC. The men's javelin weighs about 800 grams (1.8 pounds) and must be at least 260 cm (8.5 feet) long. The women throw a javelin that must weigh at least 600 grams (1.3 pounds) and be at least 220 cm (7.2 feet) long. It isthe only throwing event not using a circle. The javelin is not required to stick but must land point-first for a valid throw.
Throwers from Finland have historically been a force in the event. Matti Järvinen, a Finn, established 10 world records and improved the record by6.22 metres, finally reaching 77.23 metres (253 feet 4.5 inches) in 1936. As records continued to be broken, there was less and less space within the stadium to throw the javelin safely. Terje Pedersen (Norway) broke the300-foot (91.44-metre) barrier in 1964, and by 1984 Uwe Hohn (East Germany) had thrown a prodigious 104.80 metres (343.8 feet), a throw so great that it influenced a change in the design of the javelin to keep it withinthe safe confines of the field. Beginning in 1985, throwers used a javelin that, at the same weight, was designed to reduce the length of the throw by9 to 12 metres (30 to 40 feet). The design of the women's javelin was changed after successive world records pushed close to 80 metres (262.5 feet) in the late 1980s.
Decathlon and heptathlon
Both men and women participate in multi-event competitions, the men in the 10-event decathlon and the women in the 7-event heptathlon, which superseded the earlier pentathlon. The competitions, which require a two-day schedule, are held basically at international meets and national championships. In the United States they also are scheduled in many college conference championships.
Each athlete is given points for performance in each event, with more points awarded for better marks. The athlete with the most total points wins.
Men compete in five events each day, doing consecutively the 100 metres, long jump, shot put, high jump, and 400 metres on the first day and the 110-metre hurdles, discus throw, pole vault, javelin throw, and 1,500-metre run in that order on the second day. Women do, in order, the 100-metre hurdles, high jump, shot put, and 200 metres on the first day, followed by the long jump, javelin throw, and 800 metres on the second day.
Jim Thorpe, the great all-around American athlete, won the first decathlon,taking the 1912 Olympic Games contest, and for many years it was mostly an American event. Bob Mathias (U.S.) won his first decathlon at age 17 in 1948 and repeated it four years later. Another two-time winner was Daley Thompson of England, victorious in 1980 and 1984. Notable in the heptathlon was Jackie Joyner-Kersee, a record setter and winner at the 1987 World Championships and 1988 Olympics.
Decathlon and heptathlon
Both men and women participate in multi-event competitions, the men in the 10-event decathlon and the women in the 7-event heptathlon, which superseded the earlier pentathlon. The competitions, which require a two-day schedule, are held basically at international meets and national championships. In the United States they also are scheduled in many college conference championships.
Each athlete is given points for performance in each event, with more points awarded for better marks. The athlete with the most total points wins.
Men compete in five events each day, doing consecutively the 100 metres, long jump, shot put, high jump, and 400 metres on the first day and the 110-metre hurdles, discus throw, pole vault, javelin throw, and 1,500-metre run in that order on the second day. Women do, in order, the 100-metre hurdles, high jump, shot put, and 200 metres on the first day, followed by the long jump, javelin throw, and 800 metres on the second day.
Jim Thorpe, the great all-around American athlete, won the first decathlon,taking the 1912 Olympic Games contest, and for many years it was mostly an American event. Bob Mathias (U.S.) won his first decathlon at age 17 in 1948 and repeated it four years later. Another two-time winner was Daley Thompson of England, victorious in 1980 and 1984. Notable in the heptathlon was Jackie Joyner-Kersee, a record setter and winner at the 1987 World Championships and 1988 Olympics.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
