Who knows, why they are using lane 2 to 9 and not 1 to 8 at Beijing Olympics Athletics running races?

Question

Who knows, why they are using lane 2 to 9 and not 1 to 8 at Beijing Olympics Athletics running races?

Answer 1

It is probably so that the runners are closer to the stands but that's probably not right since its like an extra 3 feet so i couldn't really tell you.

Answer 2

Anyone that does athletics will know that when you train on a track you are not supposed to train on lanes 1 & 2 and usually also lane 3. This is because it wears out the track and makes the synthetic material/rubber stuff start to come off. It ends up flat, with no bounce and kinda gravelly with rubber pieces. The longer distances use lane 1 obviously as it the shortest lane around the track and this can wear it down considerably.

This would be my guess why they have 9 lanes instead of 8 and are not using the 1st lane for short sprints as these athletes would have a disadvantage.