Since track events have gone metric has the actual track been altered to reflect this change? For instance, is the 440-yard dash actually 400 meters?

Track’s world governing body, the International Amateur Athletic Federation, now the International Association of Athletics Federations, began pushing for an end to yards — known as an imperial measurement — in track events in the mid-1970s.

Athletic groups nationwide began abandoning yards shortly afterward — until then the NCAA did so each Olympic year — and the Louisiana High School Athletic Association voted in 1979 to use metric measurements for track events beginning with the 1980 season.

(For those seasons the American Press used both imperial and metric results in its listings.)

In the years that followed, some schools refurbished their tracks and some didn’t — a fact that the LHSAA bylaws take into account.

“Running events shall be conducted in metric distances unless track events are conducted on a 440-yard track,” reads Section 23.5.12 of its outdoor track handbook.

“In this case, the events shall be conducted in yards, and the results of the events shall be converted from English to metric time when reporting the results to the LHSAA.”

The handbook includes the following conversion chart:

To convert time from:

100 yards to 100 meters — add 0.9 second.

220 yards to 200 meters — subtract 0.1 second.

440 yards to 400 meters — subtract 0.3 second.

440-yard relay to 400-meter relay — subtract 0.2 second.

880 yards to 800 meters — subtract 0.7 second.

880-yard relay to 800-meter relay — subtract 0.5 second.

Mile relay to 1600-meter relay — subtract 1.1 seconds.

Mile run to 1600-meter run — subtract 1.6 seconds.

Two-mile run to 3200-meter run — subtract 3.4 seconds.

The metric distances and their imperial equivalents, rounded to the nearest hundredth:

100 meters — 109.36 yards.

200 meters — 218.72 yards.

400 meters — 437.45 yards.

800 meters — 874.89 yards.

1600 meters — 0.99 mile.

3200 meters — 1.99 miles.

When the IAAF switched to metric in 1976 it made an exception for the one-mile run, which had long been a benchmark for human stamina and speed. One group wants that exception to filter downward.

The Associated Press in February reported on a grassroots effort by Ryan Lamppa and other runners “to make the mile the standard for middle-distance running” and “maybe bring some passion back to a portion of their sport that has lost some of its pizazz over the years.”

“It’s a distance people get,” Lamppa told the AP. “We can tell from the people who sign up with us. People are passionate about the mile. It really does have prominence in our culture. Not only on signs and odometers, but there’s something about the mile that’s very different from any other track event.”

Online: http://lhsaa.org; www.iaaf.org; http://bringbackthemile.com.

The Informer answers questions from readers each Sunday, Monday and Wednesday. It is researched and written by Andrew Perzo, an American Press staff writer. To ask a question, call 494-4098, press 5 and leave voice mail, or email informer@americanpress.com

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