Question: What are the most common middle-distance track events?
About the article "Track and field", section "Middle distance".

Candidate passages:
Track and field is a sport which combines various athletic contests based on the skills of running, jumping, and throwing.
The name is derived from the sport's typical venue: a stadium with an oval running track enclosing a grass field where the throwing and jumping events take place.
The running events, which include sprints, middle and long-distance events, and hurdling, are won by the athlete with the fastest time.
The jumping and throwing events are won by the athlete who achieves the greatest distance or height.
Regular jumping events include long jump, triple jump, high jump and pole vault, while the most common throwing events are shot put, javelin, discus and hammer.
There are also "combined events", such as heptathlon and decathlon, in which athletes compete in a number of the above events.
Most track and field events are individual sports with a single victor, but a number are relay races.
Events are almost exclusively divided by gender, although both the men's and women's competitions are usually held at the same venue.
Track and field is often categorised under the umbrella sport of athletics, which also includes road running, cross country running, and race walking.
At the international level, the two most prestigious international track and field competitions are athletics competition at the Olympic Games and the IAAF World Championships in Athletics, while the International Association of Athletics Federations is the international governing body.
Records are kept of the best performances in specific events, at world and national levels, right down to a personal level.
However, if athletes are deemed to have violated the event's rules or regulations, they are disqualified from the competition and their marks are erased.
In North America, the term track and field may be used to refer to athletics in general, rather than specifically track and field events. 
Track and field competitions emerged in the late 19th century and were typically contested between athletes who were representing rival educational institutions, military organisations and sports clubs.
Participating athletes may compete in one or more events, according to their specialities.
Men and women compete separately.
Track and field comes in both indoor and outdoor formats, with most indoor competitions occurring in winter, while outdoor events are mostly held in summer.
The sport is defined by the venue in which the competitions are held – the track and field stadium.
A variety of running events are held on the track which fall into three broad distance categories: sprints, middle-distance, and long-distance track events.
Relay races feature teams comprising four runners each, who must pass a baton to their team-mate after a specified distance with the aim of being the first team to finish.
Hurdling events and the steeplechase are a variation upon the flat running theme in that athletes must clear obstacles on the track during the race.
The field events come in two types – jumping and throwing competitions.
In throwing events, athletes are measured by how far they hurl an implement, with the common events being the shot put, discus, javelin, and hammer throw.
There are four common jumping events: the long jump and triple jump are contests measuring the horizontal distance an athlete can jump, while the high jump and pole vault are decided on the height achieved.
Combined events, which include the decathlon (typically competed by men) and heptathlon (typically competed by women), are competitions where athletes compete in a number of different track and field events, with each performance going toward a final points tally.
The most prestigious track and field contests occur within athletics championships and athletics programmes at multi-sport events.
The Olympic athletics competition and World Championships in Athletics, and the Paralympic athletics competition and IPC World Championships in Athletics, are the highest and most prestigious levels of competition in track and field.
Track and field events have become the most prominent part of major athletics championships and many famous athletes within the sport of athletics come from this discipline.
Discrete track and field competitions are found at national championships-level and also at annual, invitational track and field meets.
Meetings range from elite competitions – such as those in the IAAF Diamond League series – to basic all comers track meets, inter-sports club meetings and schools events, which form the grassroots of track and field. 
There are many track and field events which involve individual athletes competing, including sprints, middle and long-distance events, and hurdling.
Regular jumping events include long jump, triple jump, high jump and pole vault, while the most common throwing events are shot put, javelin, discus and hammer.
There are also "combined events", such as heptathlon and decathlon, in which athletes compete in a number of the above events.
The United States has frequently set world standards in various disciplines of track and field for both male and female athletes.
Tyson Gay and Michael Johnson hold various sprint records for male athletes while Florence Griffith Joyner set various world sprint records for female athletes.
Alan Webb's personal record on the mile is just three seconds short of the world record, while Mary Slaney set many world records for middle-distance disciplines.
A particular turning point in US track occurred in the running boom of the 1970s.
After a series of American successes in various disciplines of running from the likes of marathoners Frank Shorter and Bill Rodgers as well as track athletes Dave Wottle and Steve Prefontaine, running as an American past-time finally manifested.
Carl Lewis is also credited with "normalizing" the practice of having a lengthy track career as opposed to retiring once reaching the age when it is less realistic of gaining a PB (personal best) result.
The United States is home to school-sponsored track and field, a tradition in which most schools from middle school through college feature a track and field team.
High school track and field in the United States provides excellent development for creating a big talent pool of athletes in the country.
Due to the amount of American athletes who satisfy Olympic norm standards, the US holds national trials to select the best of its top-tier athletes for Olympic competition. 
There are three common long distance running events in track and field competitions: 3000 metres, 5000 metres and 10,000 metres.
The latter two races are both Olympic and World Championship events outdoors, while the 3000 m is held at the IAAF World Indoor Championships.
The 5000 m and 10,000 m events have their historical roots in the 3-mile and 6-mile races.
The 3000 m was historically used as a women's long distance event, entering the World Championship programme in 1983 and Olympic programme in 1984, but this was abandoned in favour of a women's 5000 m event in 1995.
In terms of competition rules and physical demands, long distance track races have much in common with middle-distance races, except that pacing, stamina, and race tactics become much greater factors in performances.
However, a number of athletes have achieved success in both middle- and long-distance events, including Saïd Aouita who set world records from 1500 m to 5000 m. The use of pace-setters in long distance events is very common at the elite level, although they are not present at championship level competitions as all qualified competitors want to win.
The long distance track events gained popularity in the 1920s by the achievements of the "Flying Finns", such as multiple Olympic champion Paavo Nurmi.
The successes of Emil Zátopek in the 1950s promoted intense interval training methods, but Ron Clarke's world record-breaking feats established the importance of natural training and even-paced running.
The 1990s saw the rise of North and East African runners in long distance events.
Kenyan and Ethiopian athletes, in particular, have since remained dominant in these events. 
The most common middle-distance track events are the 800 metres, 1500 metres and mile run, although the 3000 metres may also be classified as a middle-distance event.
The 880 yard run, or half mile, was the forebear of the 800 m distance and it has its roots in competitions in the United Kingdom in the 1830s.
The 1500 m came about as a result of running three laps of a 500 m track, which was commonplace in continental Europe in the 20th century.
Runners start the race from a standing position along a curved starting line and after hearing the starter's pistol they head towards the innermost track to follow the quickest route to the finish.
In 800 m races athletes begin at a staggered starting point before the turn in the track and they must remain in their lanes for the first 100 m of the race.
This rule was introduced to reduce the amount of physical jostling between runners in the early stages of the race.
Physiologically, these middle-distance events demand that athletes have good aerobic and anaerobic energy producing systems, and also that they have strong speed endurance.
The 1500 m and mile run events have historically been some of the most prestigious track and field events.
Swedish rivals Gunder Hägg and Arne Andersson broke each other's 1500 m and mile world records on a number of occasions in the 1940s.
The prominence of the distances were maintained by Roger Bannister, who (in 1954) was the first to run the long-elusive four-minute mile, and Jim Ryun's exploits served to popularise interval training.
Races between British rivals Sebastian Coe, Steve Ovett and Steve Cram characterised middle-distance running in 1980s.
From the 1990s onwards, North Africans such as Noureddine Morceli of Algeria and Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco came to dominate the 1500 and mile events.
Beyond the short distances of sprinting events, factors such as an athlete's reactions and top speed becomes less important, while qualities such as pace, race tactics and endurance become more so.