Editing Regency era (section)

=== Track and field athletics ===

[[Track and field]] competitions in the modern sense were first recorded in the early 19th century. They are known to have been held by schools, colleges, army and navy bases, social clubs and the like, often as a challenge to a rival establishment.<ref>[http://www.iaaf.org/aboutiaaf/history/index.html History – Introduction] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100501210531/http://www.iaaf.org/aboutiaaf/history/index.html |date=1 May 2010}}. [[IAAF]]. Retrieved 2 July 2020.</ref> In the public schools, athletics competitions were conceived as human equivalents of horse racing or [[fox hunting]] with runners known as "hounds" and named as if they were racehorses. The [[Shrewsbury School|Royal Shrewsbury School Hunt]], established in 1819, is the world's oldest running club. The school organised [[Paper Chase (game)|paper chase]] races in which the hounds followed a trail of paper shreds left by two "foxes". The oldest running race of the modern era is Shrewsbury's Annual [[Steeplechase (athletics)|Steeplechase]] (cross-country), first definitely recorded in 1834.<ref>{{cite journal |title=On the Scent of History |journal=Running Times |date=December 1998 |page=28 |author=Robinson, Roger}}</ref>