Channel Islands High School
This photo is facing east. With the finish to the west, into the prevailing
wind, they have made adaptations for the sprinters here, just like other adapatations
in the same area. This track is marked to run hurdles and sprints in either
direction of the home stretch. But they only have one set of hurdle marks for
each type, meaning they have double start/finish lines.
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The correct line must be selected for the direction they are running. Going
backward down the home stretch, 110H would use the common finish line as a start
line (meaning the hurdles are marked for reverse start--the extra foot is at
the end of the race). Someone who doesn't figure this out might start the 110H
in the normal direction at what looks like the normal start line. But that is
wrong, actually a foot too far away from the first hurdle in that direction.
Instead there is a small blue line (in the outer lanes) that is the normal direction
110H start line, and a foot beyond the common finish line is its equivalent
finish line.
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Women's 100H is a litte more severe and is favored the opposite way. In order
to run it backward, the start line is the line 2.5m beyond the common finish,
and the finish of the reverse race has the lane line numbers and is 2.5m beyond
(in normal direction--in other words 2.5m closer to the common finish line)
the 100m start line that is in the middle of the zone. That means the hurdle
marks for women are "normally" marked for the normal running direction,
BUT the hurdle marks for men are "normally"marked for the reverse
running direction. Great for shuttle hurdle relays but I have got to ask if
they get this right at all their meets. This track is marked for 4x200 relay,
4 turn stagger in lanes, but instead of using red marks, they used white, including
a second white start line.
