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In track and field, wind assistance is the benefit that an athlete receives during a race or event as registered by a Anemometer. 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 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.
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.
In June 1979, just days after equalling her own 100 metres hurdles world record of 12.48 seconds, – The Athletics Site Grażyna Rabsztyn ran the distance in 12.39 seconds in Bremen with a 2.8 m/s tail wind. 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. Since then, other athletes have registered faster wind-assisted times, notably Tobi Amusan of Nigeria (Omo Naija from Ijebu-Ode) who broke her own world record of 12.12 seconds with a time of 12.06 seconds about an hour after setting it with a tail wind of 2.5 m/s (she broke the world record (12.20 seconds by Kendra Harrison) set in July 2016.
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. 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.
When Mike Powell set the world record at the 1991 World Championships in Athletics, moments before, Carl Lewis broke the existing world record by Bob Beamon with an 8.91, only to have it invalidated for record purposes by the +2.9 wind. Still in the competition, Powell then needed to jump over the world record to win the competition. He succeeded, and the wind had died down to only +0.3, enough to record a legal wind for the record as well. In a later competition, Powell jumped 8.99, also in Sestriere, but without setting a record due to a +4.4 wind.
At the 2009 IWAS World Games, Paralympian Wojtek Czyz broke his own F42 classification world record twice. Wind readings of +4.0 and +4.1 invalidated both jumps. IWAS World Games 2009 - Athletics Results
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.
In July 1992 in Sestriere, former world record holder for women Heike Drechsler jumped over the world record mark with 7.63 metres, with a tail wind of 2.1 m/s. All-time women's best long jump - wind-assisted jumps – The Track and Field all-time Performances Homepage
In the heptathlon, wind-assisted series have been rare. Tatyana Chernova greatly outperformed the current world junior record 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. All-time women's best heptathlon - wind-assisted serie – The Track and Field all-time Performances Homepage
At the 1925 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, Henry Bonura threw the javelin throw , better than the then-American record, but the mark was not accepted as a record due to wind assistance.
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