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Wind assistance
In track and field, wind assistance is the benefit that an athlete receives during a race or event as registered by a wind gauge. Wind is one of many forms of weather that can affect sport. Tailwinds are denoted as positive (+) values, while headwinds are denoted as negative (−) values.
Due to a tailwind helping to enhance the speed of the athlete in events like certain sprint races (100 and 200 metres), 100/110 metres hurdles, the triple jump and the long jump, there is a limit to how much wind assistance the athlete may compete under if the performance is to establish a record. If a tail wind exceeds 2 metres per second (3.9 kn) the result cannot be registered as a record on any level. However, the results within that competition are still valid because all athletes in said race would receive similar assistance, and in field events it is just random circumstance at the moment of the attempt. The wind assistance maximums are only in regard to the validation of a record.
The exceptions are the combined events like heptathlon and decathlon. Here, the total score may be accepted even though some of the results had a tail wind of more than 2.0 m/s. In events where wind velocity is measured, the average velocity (based on the algebraic sum of the wind velocities, as measured for each individual event, divided by the number of such events) shall not exceed +2.0 m/s (Rule 260.18). Higher average velocity was previously allowed as long as no individual event would exceed +4.0 m/s, but the IAAF removed this rule in 2010.
There have also been cases where the prevailing wind has aided point to point long-distance races like the 2011 Boston Marathon, however the nature of point to point courses invalidate allowable records by design.
Obadele Thompson ran the 100 metres in 9.69 seconds in April 1996 in El Paso. The result would have been a new world record, had it not been for the tail wind of >5.0 m/s. This was then bettered by Tyson Gay in June 2008, when Gay ran a time of 9.68 seconds with the help of a +4.1 m/s tailwind. That mark was surpassed when Usain Bolt set the current world record the following year, 9.58 with a legal +0.9 tailwind.
Tyreek Hill ran the 100 metres in 9.98 seconds in May 2013, which would have made him the youngest to break the 10-second barrier, had it not been for the 5.0 m/s tailwind. That mark was also surpassed when Trayvon Bromell set the current world junior record 9.97 with a legal +1.8 wind at an even younger age the following year.
When the women's world record holder Florence Griffith Joyner ran her 10.49 in 1988, the official wind reading was 0.0. Many observers have later noted evidence of a significant wind, suggesting the anemometer was defective.
Leroy Burrell ran 200 metres in 19.61 seconds in May 1990 at College Station, Texas, well under the world record at the time (19.72 – Pietro Mennea – Mexico 1979) but with a tail wind of 4.0 m/s. Also, Michael Johnson ran the 200 metres in 19.70 seconds on 22 June 1996, during a semi-final race at the US Olympic Trials in Atlanta, with a tail wind of 2.7 m/s. The next day, in the final race, he improved the long-standing world record to 19.66 seconds, which he improved further at the Olympic Games, with a 19.32 in the same city in August.
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Wind assistance
In track and field, wind assistance is the benefit that an athlete receives during a race or event as registered by a wind gauge. Wind is one of many forms of weather that can affect sport. Tailwinds are denoted as positive (+) values, while headwinds are denoted as negative (−) values.
Due to a tailwind helping to enhance the speed of the athlete in events like certain sprint races (100 and 200 metres), 100/110 metres hurdles, the triple jump and the long jump, there is a limit to how much wind assistance the athlete may compete under if the performance is to establish a record. If a tail wind exceeds 2 metres per second (3.9 kn) the result cannot be registered as a record on any level. However, the results within that competition are still valid because all athletes in said race would receive similar assistance, and in field events it is just random circumstance at the moment of the attempt. The wind assistance maximums are only in regard to the validation of a record.
The exceptions are the combined events like heptathlon and decathlon. Here, the total score may be accepted even though some of the results had a tail wind of more than 2.0 m/s. In events where wind velocity is measured, the average velocity (based on the algebraic sum of the wind velocities, as measured for each individual event, divided by the number of such events) shall not exceed +2.0 m/s (Rule 260.18). Higher average velocity was previously allowed as long as no individual event would exceed +4.0 m/s, but the IAAF removed this rule in 2010.
There have also been cases where the prevailing wind has aided point to point long-distance races like the 2011 Boston Marathon, however the nature of point to point courses invalidate allowable records by design.
Obadele Thompson ran the 100 metres in 9.69 seconds in April 1996 in El Paso. The result would have been a new world record, had it not been for the tail wind of >5.0 m/s. This was then bettered by Tyson Gay in June 2008, when Gay ran a time of 9.68 seconds with the help of a +4.1 m/s tailwind. That mark was surpassed when Usain Bolt set the current world record the following year, 9.58 with a legal +0.9 tailwind.
Tyreek Hill ran the 100 metres in 9.98 seconds in May 2013, which would have made him the youngest to break the 10-second barrier, had it not been for the 5.0 m/s tailwind. That mark was also surpassed when Trayvon Bromell set the current world junior record 9.97 with a legal +1.8 wind at an even younger age the following year.
When the women's world record holder Florence Griffith Joyner ran her 10.49 in 1988, the official wind reading was 0.0. Many observers have later noted evidence of a significant wind, suggesting the anemometer was defective.
Leroy Burrell ran 200 metres in 19.61 seconds in May 1990 at College Station, Texas, well under the world record at the time (19.72 – Pietro Mennea – Mexico 1979) but with a tail wind of 4.0 m/s. Also, Michael Johnson ran the 200 metres in 19.70 seconds on 22 June 1996, during a semi-final race at the US Olympic Trials in Atlanta, with a tail wind of 2.7 m/s. The next day, in the final race, he improved the long-standing world record to 19.66 seconds, which he improved further at the Olympic Games, with a 19.32 in the same city in August.