Athletics

Women generally run the same distances as men although hurdles and steeplechase barriers are lower and the weights of the shot, discus, javelin and hammer are less. The manufacture of these beads requires a large glass furnace and annealing kiln. Men and women do not compete against each other. They are made using traditional glassworking techniques from Italy that are more often used to make art glass objects. With the exception of the mile run, races based on imperial distances are rarely run on the track anymore since most tracks have been converted from a quarter mile (402.3 m) to 400 meters; all recordkeeping for imperial distances has been discontinued. Furnace glass are a special type of art bead. 300 m) are run much less often. Magatama are traditional Japanese beads, and cinnabar was often used for beads in China.

There are other variations besides the ones listed below but races of unusual length (e.g. Rudraksha beads are customary in India for making Buddhist and Hindu rosaries (malas). They also consist of the javelin, hammer and discus throws; however, often these are outside of the stadium because they take up a large amount of space and may damage grass fields. Other ethnic beads include Dzi beads and African brass beads. Field events consist of the high jump, pole vault, long jump, triple jump and shot put. Other beads considered trade beads are those made in Africa, by and for Africans, such as Kiffa beads. Recently these fields have been made out of astro turf or field turf instead of grass. Precious metals and ivory are also imitated.

Often schools will place a field in the middle of the track, usually football/soccer/lacrosse, due to their size and shape. Often beads are made to look like a more expensive original material, especially in the case of fake pearls and simulated rocks, minerals, and gemstones. This can be inside or outside the track, making for a tighter turn or a wider turn. Styles and colors go in and out of production, so vintage cuts and colors are often prized with a similarly associated price tag. The track consists of 6-10 lanes and for the bigger collegiate tracks, a steeplechase lane with a water pit. They are a high-lead crystal, have an incredible sparkle and clarity, and are often multi-faceted to resemble gemstones. Usually the tracks are 400 meters, however, some old tracks are still measured in yards, so they measure 440 yards. Swarovski crystal beads are also prized by hobbyists.

The outdoor track and field season begins in the spring and may last through the summer. Chevron beads are a specific, historically important type of trade bead. For multi-event athletes there is the Pentathlon for women (consisting of 60m hurdles, high jump, shot put, long jump and 800m) and heptathlon for men (consisting of 60m, long jump, shot put, high jump, 60m hurdles, pole vault and 1000m). Trade beads are various types of beads made in Europe specifically to be used in the slave trade and other trading in Africa. In some countries, notably Norway, standing long jump and standing high jump are also contested. Pressed glass beads are formed by pressing the hot glass into mold to give the bead its shape. weight throw. Millefiori beads are made with mutiple canes of glass fused together to make an all-over flower pattern.

Other events unique to indoor meets (especially in the United States) are the 300m, 600m, 1000m and 35 lb. When the base bead has been formed, other colors of glass can be added to the surface to create many designs. The longer throws of javelin, hammer and discus are reserved for outdoor meetings, as there is normally not enough space in an indoor stadium to house these events. Lampwork beads are made by using a torch to heat a rod of glass and spinning the resulting thread around a metal rod covered in bead release. In the field events, indoor meetings only feature the high jump, pole vault, long jump, triple jump and shot put. The beads are glazed in a red hot oven after being machine faceted. Indoor meets also have the addition of a 3,000 m run , normally instead of the 5000m(at both the collegiate and elite level). The pattern of facets is always the same and the resulting bead is somewhat oval in the larger sizes.

In an indoor track meet athletes contest the same events as an outdoor meet with the exception of the 100 m and 110 m/100 m hurdles (replaced by the 60 m sprint and 60 m hurdles at all levels), and the 10,000 m run and 3,000 m steeplechase. They are popular in jewelry and come in sizes from 4mm to 15 mm. Often an indoor track will have banked turns to compensate for the tight bends. Fire-polished beads are faceted glass beads from the Czech republic. The indoor track consists of four to six lanes instead of the eight to ten on an outdoor track. They are composed of many consecutive layers of colored glass which are then cut to show the resulting chevron pattern. Most indoor tracks are 200 meters, however, less frequently, there are smaller and larger tracks that measure from between 180 to 300 meters. Chevron Beads are special glass beads, originally made for the slave trade in Africa by glassmakers in Italy.

There is an indoor season, run during the winter and an outdoor season, run during the spring and summer. Seed beads used by craftspersons should not be confused with Seed Beads™: laboratory-grown beads made of PTFE used to generate seeds of protein crystals. There are two seasons for track and field. There are also good seed beads from France that are available in historic "old-time" colors and are popular for use in repairing or replicating antiquities. Both organizations allow athletes to receive money for racing putting an end to the "shamateurism" that existed before. Japanese seed beads are more uniform than the Czech ones and have larger holes for the same size of bead. An additional, less structured organization, the Road Runners Club of America (RRCA) also exists in the USA to promote road racing. Most of today's good quality seed beeds are made in Japan or the Czech Republic.

A new governing body called The Athletics Congress (TAC) was formed, it was later renamed USA Track and Field (USATF or USA T&F). These are called "the most brilliant of all seed beads". The AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) was the governing body in the United States until it collapsed under pressure from advancing professionalism in the late 1970s. Charlotte cuts are seed beads that have a single facet per bead to add sparkle. The IAAF established separate outdoor World Championships in 1983. There are now 3 versions of cylinder beads:. An international governing body, the IAAF was founded in 1912. Rows and columns in weaving line up more uniformly, so pattern work comes out more accurate and even.

Women were not allowed to participate in track and field events in the Olympics until 1928. Because the ends are flat instead of rounded, work created with cylinder beads has a flat, smooth texture. Athletics was included in the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 and has been part of the program ever since, providing the backbone of the Olympics. Unlike regular rounded seed beads, the cylinder beads are quite uniform in shape and size and have large holes for their size. Many athletic events have an ancient origin and were already conducted in competitive form by the ancient Greeks. During the last decade, a new shape of Japanese seed beads, the cylinder bead, has become increasingly popular. Field events (jumping and throwing) often take place in the field in the centre of the running track. Many of the tubed beads you see hanging in the craft stores are stamped with their name on the bottoms, indicating both a wholesale and retail packaging setup.

Modern athletic events are usually organized around a 400 metre running track, on which most of the running events take place. Toho, the other major Japanese supplier, seems to have a more flexible packaging policy. There are details of the meeting in a series of letters written 60 years later by CT Robinson who was a pupil there from 1838 to 1841. To accommodate the average "wholesale" customer, whether it be a bead shop or designer, some larger distributors have made deals to receive their wholesale packages of beads in smaller (50 to 250 gram) pre-packaged sizes. The earliest recorded meeting was organised at Shrewsbury, Shropshire in 1840 by the Royal Shrewsbury School Hunt. One major supplier, Miyuki, sells factory packages which contain up to 1 kg of beads, and are almost always repackaged into tubes or other containers for retail sale. The Royal Military College, Sandhurst has claimed to be the first to adopt this in 1812 and 1825 but without any supporting evidence. Thus, a 250 gram wholesale package would fill 25 tubes -- a bit more than the average beader would need.

This included the incorporation of regular sports and exercise into school regimes. Standard Japanese seed beads are usually sold in approximately 10 gram tubes. After this ban was lifted in the 17th century sports began to flourish once more, but it was not until the 19th century that organization began to appear. More expensive beads may be sold in 2.5 or 5 gram units. However, at least in Britain, they fell out favour between the 13th and 16th centuries due to government restrictions on sports aiming to reduce the practice of archery. Most Japanese seed beads are repackaged for retail sale in manageable quantities based on price codes. Many athletic sports have found favour in Europe throughout the ages. Japanese beads are sold by gram weight, never by the hank, despite some seller claims on eBay.

Contests between rivals and friends may have been common on both official and unofficial grounds. As the steel dies wear eventually, they are replaced. In the Middle Ages the sons of noblemen would be trained in running, leaping and wrestling, in addition to riding, jousting and arms-training. Manual and automatic machinery is in use in the Czech Republic. However these were often related to training to war, and were not very well organized. Seed bead machinery uses glass rods softened to a red heat, fed into a steel die stamp that forms the shape of the bead with a reciprocating needle that forms the hole. Other peoples enjoyed athletic contests, such as the Celts, Teutons and Goths who succeeded the Romans. Glass rods made with concentric layers of color or stripes of color can be used to make patterns of color in seed beads.

There were several other "Games" held throughout Europe in later eras:. An exterior coating of a metallic film adds a lustre to seed beads called "AB" - Aurora Borealis. The earliest recorded win was at these games in the stade race. Linings of pink or blue are also common. Athletics was the original sport at the first Olympics back in 776 BC where the only event held was the stadium-length foot race or "stade". Transparent seed beads benefit from lining the interior hole in silver, gold, copper. . The color of the bead can be transparent or opaque.

The word is derived from the Greek word "athlos" meaning "contest". Examples of true black glass are circulating in jewelry pieces made to comemerate the funeral of Queen Victoria. Athletics, also known, especially in American English, as track and field or track and field athletics, is a collection of sport events, which can roughly be divided into running, throwing, and jumping. The receipe for a true black glass was lost during World War I, and modern black glass held to sunlight is a deep purple. Decathlon. Formulas for different colors of glass are closely guarded. Heptathlon. The color glass rods are produced from a larger mass melt of some 10 metric tons.

Pentathlon. The excess glass is recycled to form new rods. Composite events