Wind assistance

Wind assistance is a term in athletics which refers to the wind level during a race or event. The wind level is registered by a wind gauge.

Due to a tailwind helping to enhance the speed of the athlete in events like certain sprint races (60, 100 and 200 metres), 100/110 metres hurdles, the triple jump and the long jump there is a given legal requirement which the athlete must perform under. If a tail wind exceeds 2 metres per second the result can not be registered as a record on any level. [ [http://motivate.maths.org/conferences/conf23/c23_project1.shtml Motivate : Mathematics Videoconferences for Schools ] ]

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. The maximum limit is 4.0 m/s for any one event, but 2.0 m/s on average across all applicable disciplines.

Notable cases of strong wind assistance

100 metres

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, Gay ran a time of 9.68 seconds with the help of a +4.1 m/s tailwind. [http://www.gbrathletics.com/cm99.htm Commonwealth All-Time Lists (Men)] - GBR Athletics]

200 metres

Leroy Burrell ran in 19.61 seconds in May 1990 in College Station, Texas, well below the world record at the time but with a tail wind of 4.0 m/s. Also, Michael Johnson ran 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. [ [http://www.alltime-athletics.com/m_200no.htm All-time men's best 200m - wind-assisted] - The Track and Field all-time Performances Homepage] The next day, in the final race, he improved the long-standing world record to 19.66 seconds, [ [http://www.usatf.org/athletes/bios/oldBios/2001/Johnson_Michael.asp USA Track and Field - Michael Johnson] ] which he improved further at the Olympic Games with a 19.32 in the same city in August. [ [http://www.athletix.org/Statistics/wr200men.htm World Record Progression - 200 m men] - The Athletics Site]

100/110 metres hurdles

Renaldo Nehemiah ran a would-be 110 metres hurdles world record of 12.91 seconds in June 1979 in Champaign, Illinois with a tail wind of 3.5 m/s. Roger Kingdom later became the first person to break the 12.90-second-barrier, running in 12.87 seconds in September 1989 at the World Cup in Barcelona with a tail wind of 2.6 m/s. [ [http://www.alltime-athletics.com/m_110hno.htm All-time men's best 110m hurdles - wind-assisted marks] - The Track and Field all-time Performances Homepage] As of 2008, the world record is 12.87 seconds.

In June 1979, just days after equalling her own 100 metres hurdles world record of 12.48 seconds, [http://www.athletix.org/Statistics/wr100mhwomen.html World Record Progression - 100 m. hurdles women] - The Athletics Site] Grazyna Rabsztyn ran the distance in 12.39 seconds in Bremen with a 2.8 m/s tail wind. [http://www.alltime-athletics.com/w_100hno.htm All-time women's best 100m hurdles - wind-assisted] - The Track and Field all-time Performances Homepage] The next year Rabsztyn became the first woman to legally run under 12.40 when she improved the world record to 12.36 seconds.b] Since then, other athletes have registered faster wind-assisted times, but none of them better than the current world record.b]

Triple jump

Willie Banks became the first athlete to break the 18-metre-barrier in the triple jump, but with a tailwind of 5.2 m/s his 18.20 m jump in July 1988 in Indianapolis was not recognized as a world record. Mike Conley jumped 18.17 at the 1992 Summer Olympics, and the tail wind of 2.1 m/s was only marginally non-legal. [ [http://www.alltime-athletics.com/mtripno.htm All-time men's best triple jump - wind-assisted marks] - The Track and Field all-time Performances Homepage] Jonathan Edwards, who became the first athlete to legally break the 18-metre-barrier with his current world record jump, jumped 18.43 metres in June 1995 in Villeneuve d'Ascq in a tailwind of 2.4 m/s.c]

In May 2007, Keila Costa became the first South American woman to break the 15-metre-barrier. Her 15.10 m jump in Uberlândia, Brazil had a tail wind of 2.7 m/s. [ [http://www.alltime-athletics.com/wtripleno.htm All-time women's best triple jump - wind-assisted jumps] - The Track and Field all-time Performances Homepage] Her legal personal best jump was 14.43 at the time, and the South American record was 14.53 metres. The next month Costa improved the South American record to 14.57 metres. [cite news |first=Eduardo |last=Biscayart |title=14.57 Area Triple Jump Record for Costa as South American Champs finish |url=http://www.iaaf.org/news/Kind=2/newsId=39016.html |work=IAAF.org |date=10 June 2007 |accessdate=2007-09-05 ]

Long jump

In the long jump, Iván Pedroso famously jumped 8.96 metres in Sestriere, Italy in 1995 to break the world record by one centimetre — however, the result was never accepted due to wind assistance problems. The wind gauge did show a legal tail wind of 1.2 m/s, but this was declared void as someone had been standing in front of the gauge, thereby interfering with the wind measurement and rendering the result unusable. [ [http://www.iaaf.org/athletes/athlete=4205/BioPopUp.html IAAF profile for Iván Pedroso] ]

Also, two Oceanian records were not recognized. Gary Honey jumped 8.39 metres in July 1984 in Sacramento, California, and Peter Burge jumped 8.48 in September 2000 in Gold Coast, Queensland. Both results had too strong tailwind. Only weeks after Burge's jump, the Oceanian record was improved with a legal 8.49 metres jump by Jai Taurima.b]

In July 1992 in Sestriere, former world record holder for women Heike Drechsler jumped over the new (and current) world record mark with 7.63 metres. Like Mike Conley experienced in the triple jump, the tail wind was only 2.1 m/s. [ [http://www.alltime-athletics.com/wlongno.htm All-time women's best long jump - wind-assisted jumps] - The Track and Field all-time Performances Homepage]

Combined events

Dan O'Brien's decathlon result of 8844 points from June 1991 in New York City was better than the world record at the time, but not recognized due to wind assistance. [ [http://www.alltime-athletics.com/mdecano.htm All-time men's best decathlon - wind-assisted series] - The Track and Field all-time Performances Homepage] The next year O'Brien set a legal world record of 8891 points, which has since been improved further. [ [http://www.athletix.org/Statistics/wrDECmen.html World Record Progression - decathlon men] - The Athletics Site]

In the heptathlon, wind-assisted series have been rare. Tatyana Chernova greatly outperformed the current world junior record [ [http://www.gbrathletics.com/wrecj.htm World Junior Records and Best Performances] - GBR Athletics] of 6542 points with a wind-assisted score of 6768 points in June 2007 in Arles, France. Other wind-assisted series from Arles were recorded in 1987 and 2006. [ [http://www.alltime-athletics.com/whepano.htm All-time women's best heptathlon - wind-assisted serie] - The Track and Field all-time Performances Homepage]

References