National records in athletics

Remember when you played that running race with your friends in the park? Imagine if everyone in the whole country played that same race and someone won in the fastest time. That person's name and time would be written down and called a "national record."

In athletics, which is another word for sports like running, jumping, and throwing, people compete to be the best in their country or even the world. And just like in your race, if someone in athletics does something really amazing like run the fastest, jump the highest or throw the farthest, their name and performance gets written down as a record.

National records are different from world records, which are the best performances in the whole world. But just like world records, national records are a really big deal, because they show how good someone is at their sport in their country.

Lots of people work really hard for years to get a national record, and when they finally do, it's like getting a really special trophy. Sometimes national records can even be broken by someone else who is really fast or really strong, but that just means that person is now the new record holder.

So, when you see a name and a number next to it like "100m - 9.58 seconds" in athletics, it means that person ran 100 meters in 9.58 seconds and that time is the national record for their country. And that's something really amazing!