The beginner’s guide to indoor athletics
Elizabeth Egan | Jan 31, 2025
Those who have been around the sport for three decades or more will have fond memories of the intimate nature of competing at Nenagh’s Indoor Athletics Track, which was until 2000 the only indoor stadium on the island of Ireland.
Spectators and teammates banging on the metal advertising hoarding that circled the track provided the ultimate climax to hotly contested races. Encounters with styrofoam cups, chicken soup and the smell of Deep Heat may still conjure up nostalgic feelings. But the thing you’ll remember the most is the cold.
Indoor facilities have come a long way since then, and both the National Indoor Arena (NIA) in Abbotstown and the arena on the Athlone Campus of the Technological University of the Shannonside (TUS) provide pleasant experiences for athletes and spectators alike.
Indoor athletics is special. The audience is closer to the action and the shorter 200m track means that athletes pass by more often. And spectators no longer need to pack a duvet and a hot water bottle. If you want to experience athletics at its most intense, get yourself to the NIA or TUS Athlone for one of the events on the domestic calendar. Here’s what to expect.
200m and 400m
Races of 200m and longer take place on the outer 200m circuit, which has banked curves. The banks are added to make it easier for athletes to maintain speed while negotiating the tight indoor bends. Drawing an outer lane therefore holds a greater advantage, and athletes racing over 200m or 400m will be particularly hopeful of being allocated lane 5 or lane 6.
Because of the disparity of the lanes, 200m is no longer an event at European or World Indoor Championships. But it is still raced at National level, and some of Ireland’s best 200m and 400m athletes often test their speed at this distance at National Championships. Sharlene Mawdsley won the women’s title in 2023, while Mark Smyth just missed the National Record in the men’s race the same year.
While they stay in their lanes the whole way around outdoors, 400m runners break to the inside after 150m indoors. Athletes used to having a whole lane to themselves learn quickly what it is like to be an 800m runner. Because of the physical nature of the event, the first 200m can be pretty fierce, and spectators have a clearer picture of positions throughout the race. However, there’s an advantage to being out front at the bell, and races are sometimes decided a lot earlier than they are outdoors.
Because there are fewer lanes indoors – usually only six, compared to the regular eight outdoors - and because of the advantage of outside lanes, the battle for final places and favourable lane draws is pretty cut-throat. Semi-finals are definitely worth watching. With no 200m or 400m hurdle contested indoors at European or World level, the 400m indoors can also make it a particularly competitive event at championships.
800m, 1500m and 3000m
Middle-distance athletes get to race 800m, 1500m and 3000m indoors (5000m is sometimes held, particularly in the US, but it is not a championship distance, and the steeplechase is very rarely raced indoors).
Because they go by twice as often, the middle distance races are particularly engaging. There is an advantage to being out front, and unlike racing into the wind outdoors, little disadvantage, so athletes often make their move earlier. The ‘sit and kick’ approach doesn’t always work indoors, and athletes who plan to make their move off the last bend often find that they’ve left it too late. That’s not to say that home-straight dramas don’t happen, but they look a bit different indoors.
The 3000m in particular attracts an interesting mix of 1500m runners looking to gain some strength over the winter, 5000m runners working on their speed, steeplechasers not wanting to be forgotten, and those who not-so-secretly wish that 3000m was a championship event outdoors.
Fifteen laps may sound like a long way, but if an athlete lapses in concentration for just one moment, they’re gone. And sometimes ‘gone’ involves unexpected contact between skin and track. Sharp elbows, sustained attention, and a pinch of luck are essential race kit items.
60m and 60m hurdles
The limited space indoors means that the sprinters and hurdlers race just 60 metres. The short sprints and hurdles take place on the infield, allowing for at least eight lanes. But the short distance between the end of the race and the edge of the outer track is rarely enough for the speedsters to stop, so the final act of their performance tends to involve a crash with the padding that lines the outer track barriers.
The start plays a big part in all sprints, but never more so than over 60 metres. Some athletes are more suited to the shorter distance, and those who dominate indoors are not always the same ones who win the medals outdoors.
The Irish men’s 60m record is just 6.57 seconds (Israel Olatunde, 2023), while Derval O'Rourke's women’s 60m hurdles record is 7.84, so the short sprints are the ultimate event for those with short attention spans. But don't be surprised if there's a false start or two - the unwanted consequence of athletes trying to get every advantage out of the blocks.
Field events
There’s no visible difference between the high jump, pole vault, long jump and triple jump indoors and out, though athletes don’t have to deal with the weather. Shot put, too, is similar to outdoors, though the shot usually lands on mats rather than grass or grit. All the field events take place in the centre of the track, so there’s no excuse for not paying attention.
There is no Javelin, Discus, or Hammer indoors, for obvious reasons, and the long throwers will instead brave the spring weather for some dedicated outdoor throwing meets, including, for the international athletes, the European Throws Cup.
Relays
While both 4x200m and 4x400m relays feature on the domestic calendar, the 4x400m is the only relay raced at European and World Championship level. And if you thought those events got messy outdoors, wait until you see the drama that unfolds indoors!
Some of the more technical stuff
Indoor performances, particularly from 200m upwards, are generally slower than those achieved outdoors. In addition to most athletes still being in winter training, so not yet in peak form, the tighter and more regular bends and the increased bumping and barging, means that an athlete’s indoor personal best tends to be slower than their best time outdoors.
World Athletics, European Athletics and National Federations therefore have separate records for indoor and outdoor competitions. Or at least they used to.
Athletics Ireland continues to have separate records and all-time lists for indoor and outdoor performances. World Athletics, however, have started to view things a bit differently. Since 2024, competitions held on a 200m track are know as short track, irrespective of whether they’re held indoors or out. These events (200m and above, pentathlon for women, heptathlon for men, and the indoor relays) have separate short track records.
For a few years now, field events have a combined world record, irrespective of whether it was achieved indoors or out (depending on what sort of a season Mondo Duplantis has had, the pole vault record may have been achieved indoors). There is now also just a combined 60m and 60m hurdles recorded, which can be broken indoors or out.
While the distance of regular indoor tracks is 200m, indoor competitions are sometimes held on 300m and 400m tracks, often without banked bends. These tracks are not considered ‘short track’, and don’t count for short track or indoor records or qualification purposes. Indoor performances on tracks that are longer than 200m are often recorded as being held on an oversized track.
Because racing indoors (i.e. on a 200m track) is usually a bit slower, the points available for ranking purposes are more generous. Performances achieved on oversized indoor tracks are scored as if they were achieved outdoors.
Domestic calendar
The indoor season is much shorter than the outdoor season, with most of the senior events held between mid-January and late February. The Athletics Ireland Indoor Games, two rounds of the national league, the Indoor Combined Events Championships, and the action-packed IUAA Intervarsities provide the warm-up for the main event, the National Senior Indoor Championships.
Track and Field Live provides graded open competitions, across all the age groups, between November and February. National Masters Championships, National U20 and U23 Championships, National Juvenile Championships – of which the relays provide all the passionate and chaotic entertainment you’ll ever need – and provincial championships across the various age groups complete the calendar.
