Track (running) style question

Please save the snark ("who cares? It's track!") until after I get a real answer please.

AP stylebook is vague and I fall back on swimming... in copy and in agate.

Are relays total (as in 400 relay, 1,600 relay...) or by leg (4x100, 4x400)....

 

The papers I've been at have all used 400 relay, 1,600 relay, etc. I have no problem doing it the other way. It's more a matter of individual taste.

Of course, I'm in that part of the world where track coaches still call it the mile relay.

 

The stylebook does list "1,600-meter relay" in the agate. I've been writing it the same as pressboxer's examples -- 400 relay, 1,600 relay, etc. -- in mine. (Agate, that is. 400-meter relay, and so on, in my copy.)

 

My boss' individual taste is by leg.

 

I'm a lifelong track guy and go 400 and 1,600, but to repeat my tiresome and oft-repeated line, as long as you do it the same way every time, it doesn't matter.

I do, however, like that it matches swimming style, which never does the 4x100 route.

AP is back and forth, as they are on far too many things these days.

 

I do 4x100, 4x400 and 4x800 because that is how the runners and coaches refer to it (Then again, they'll also call the 1,600-meter run the "mile" and the 3,200 the "two-mile", so what do I know?). When I started here, I didn't have anyone here to tell me any different.

 

I just checked our style because I'd forgotten what our writers do. 4x100, 4x400, 4x800.

Don't like that it doesn't follow AP style ... but at least they're consistent with it.

 

Every paper I've been at has always done it by total (400, 1600, 3200), in both copy and agate.

 

I always thought this was a matter of taste.
Though I've never heard a track coach, or a sprinter for that matter, call it the "400 relay or "1600 relay."

They've always ALWAYS called it the "4x1" or "4x4." Plus, I think using "4x100" is easier to understand for non-track fans. Of course, why would a non-track fan be reading track agate anyway?

 

400 meter relay, 1600 meter relay

 

Not disagreeing with what correct style is, but I'll say that I use 4x100 and 4x400, simply because they can't be taken the wrong way. If you write the 400 relay, a reader doesn't know whether it's 4x1 or 4x4 -- ideally they can figure it out by the time, but just seems like the simpler option.