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Track and Field

Track and field is what most of the United States calls the sport that World Athletics (and most of the rest of the world) calls athletics. It is built around a 400 m oval track, plus a set of throwing and jumping events held alongside it. A World Athletics standard track has 8 lanes of…

Governing body

Track and field is what most of the United States calls the sport that World Athletics (and most of the rest of the world) calls athletics. It is built around a 400 m oval track, plus a set of throwing and jumping events held alongside it. A World Athletics standard track has 8 lanes of 1.22 m each, around two 84.39 m straights and two bends of 36.50 m curb radius. The throws (javelin, discus, shot put) and the jumps (long jump, triple jump, high jump, pole vault) each use their own runway, circle or pit, dimensioned separately below.

Perspective diagram of a World Athletics standard running track showing the 84.39 meter straight, eight lanes of 1.22 meters each, and the near bend curving away at a curb radius of 36.50 meters.
Running track drawn to scale from World Athletics Technical Rule TR14. Original diagram by Playfield Atlas.

Dimensions and layouts

Athletics covers enough separate apparatus that one guide can’t carry all of it clearly, so this hub links to three. Each is sourced to World Athletics’ Competition and Technical Rules and states its own figures independently: a discus circle is not a shot put circle, and a long jump take-off board sits nowhere near where a triple jump board does.

The running track

The oval every other event happens around: two straights of 84.39 m, two bends of 36.50 m curb radius, eight lanes of 1.22 m each, and the 30 m relay baton takeover zone. Full dimensions, the overhead plan, and why lane 1’s curb radius differs from the radius of the line that distance is measured along are in the running track dimensions guide.

The throwing events

Javelin, discus and shot put each get their own runway or circle and their own throwing sector. The discus and shot put circles really are different sizes; they are not one ring used twice. Full dimensions for all three, drawn to scale on one panel sheet, are in the throwing events guide.

The jumping events

Long jump and triple jump share a runway and take-off board, but that board sits a very different distance from the landing pit in each. High jump uses a curved, fan-shaped runway instead of a straight lane. Pole vault’s box tapers from 0.60 m at the front to 0.15 m at the back. Full dimensions for all four are in the jumping events guide.

Overhead plan

The same surface seen from straight above, drawn to scale. Nothing is foreshortened here, so every figure can be read off the drawing the way a tape measure would take it.

Overhead plan of a World Athletics standard 400 meter running track drawn to scale, showing the full oval: two 84.39 meter straights, two bends of 36.50 meter curb radius, and all eight lanes at 1.22 meters each.
The same track from directly above. Every figure is the one World Athletics Technical Rule TR14 publishes.

Detail sheet

A rule book fixes more than the shape of the surface, and the rest of it is too small to draw at court scale: a mark a few centimeters long, a post standing a meter off the sideline, the clearance around the whole thing. Each one here has its own frame and its own scale.

Detail sheet for a running track: the raised curb in cross-section, one 1.22 meter lane against the eight-lane standard, the 30 meter relay baton takeover zone, and why the curb's 36.50 meter radius differs from the 36.80 meter radius the track is actually measured along.
The curb, the lane width, the relay zone, and the measurement-line offset, at a scale the track drawing is too small to carry. Original diagram by Playfield Atlas.

Official sources

Every figure on this hub and its three guides comes from World Athletics’ own rule book. World Athletics is the current name of the federation long known as the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations).

  • World Athletics, Competition and Technical Rules, Book C2.1: Technical Rules, 2026 in-force edition.

These figures were checked against that document on 10 September 2026 and cross-verified against independent sources where the primary PDF could not be read directly in this research pass. The three guides linked above give the full note on each figure. The methodology page sets out how each number is dated and marked official, recommended or derived. If a number here looks wrong, report it through corrections.

Explore the playing surface

Track and Field court guides and tools

Use the verified guides below for dimensions, markings, planning details, and the history behind the playing surface.