To speak about athletics, you need the appropriate vocabulary.
Bar - a long, thin piece of metal or wood;
Baton - a stick that a runner passes to the next person in a race;
Cross country race - a race across fields and countryside;
Discus - a round, flat, heavy object that people throw as a sport;
Heat - a competition, especially a race, which decides who will be in the final event;
High jump - a sports event in which people try to jump over a bar which gets higher and higher during the competition;
Javelin - a sport in which you throw a javelin as far as you can;
Lap - one journey around a circular race track;
Long jump - a sports event where people try to jump as far as possible;
Pole vault - a sport in which you use a very long stick to jump over a high bar;
Race - a competition in which people run, ride, drive, etc against each other in order to see who is the fastest;
Relay - to broadcast radio or television signals;
Route - the roads or paths you follow to get from one place to another place;
Sprint - to run very fast for a short distance;
Track and field athletics - the sports which include running, jumping, and throwing.
Examples:
He's two laps behind the leaders.
Crowds gathered all along the route to watch the race.
She sprinted along the road to the bus stop.