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.

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.^[1] 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).^[2] 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.^[3]

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.