The respective running lanes for the schools competing in Thursday and Friday's Finals of the 2016 Ashanti Regional inter-schools and colleges athletics competition 'SUZO' have been released by the Ashanti Schools and Colleges Sports Federation.
Many of the competing schools were eager to know which lanes they would be running in as they believe that specific lanes had impact on the outcomes of particular events.
So RAPHSARK published below the various lanes the schools will be using at the SUZO for the various heats like 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m etc.
The question obviously is, does a good athlete need a good running lane to win a particular track event or the effect of lanes is inconsequential to the outcome of any event?
Lane one is viewed as an inconvenience in certain sprint races (mainly the 200m) because sprinters are a bit slower running curves than running straightaways, and the curve in lane one feels like it goes on forever.
Curve running in the sprints is an art form. There are a lot of tricky facets to it, such as running with a slight inward lean, powering the outside arm slightly across the body, changing the foot angle, and accelerating off the turn into the straightaway.
Most sprinters describe lanes one and two and sometimes three as being "tight." Tightness means that the curve running is more exaggerated and difficult than it is in the middle and outside lanes. Some of this is mental, but the general consensus among sprinters is that lane one feels tighter than all other lanes.
Another problem with lane one is that it is the most used lane on the track. Many sprint races have athletes in lane one. In distance races, all of the athletes end up running in lanes one and two for multiple laps. At public tracks, joggers always tend to gravitate to lane one. During team practices, lane one gets a lot of traffic. Thus that lane is typically in the poorest condition in comparison to the other lanes on the track. This is usually not the case at the tracks that host championship meets, but elsewhere, lane one is usually in bad shape.
Lane nine is viewed as an inconvenience in curved sprints because the athlete can't see the competition. This is especially true in the 400, where it's easy to run too fast or too slow in relation to the rest of the pack. For that reason, athletes who are not good at setting their own pace dislike lane nine.
Lane one is a good draw for strong curve runners. Lane nine is a good draw for athletes who are good at running their own race at their own pace.
2016 SUZO running lanes for various schools below:
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