IAAF Records and Lists

1. GENERAL

In order to be officially recognised by the IAAF, results must be achieved in competitions conducted according to IAAF Rules and Regulations in force, and the IAAF or one of its Area Associations or Member Federations must have officially ratified the results.

2. STADIUM EVENTS

Special conditions for validity of performances:

• Performances achieved in mixed competitions in track events will not be accepted. Exceptionally, in accordance with IAAF Rule 147, performances achieved in events of 5000m and 10,000m may be accepted in circumstances where there were insufficient athletes of one or both genders competing to justify the conduct of separate races and there was no pacing or assistance given by an athlete(s) of one gender to an athlete(s) of the other gender. If applicable, Member Federations must submit a specific request to the IAAF Competitions Department (events@iaaf.org) providing the documentation as required.
• Performances which are wind assisted or for which a wind reading is not available will be considered illegal. They shall be eligible for world rankings subject to a correction mechanism.
• Hand timing performances in 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 110m/100m Hurdles, 400m Hurdles and 4x100m Relay will be considered illegal.
• For the running events of 200m and over (including combined events), performances achieved on oversized tracks shall not be accepted.
• For the Combined Events at least one of these conditions must be met:
  
  • The wind velocity in any individual event shall not exceed plus 4 metres per second.
  • The average wind 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 plus 2 metres per second.

3. ROAD EVENTS

Performances achieved on road events (road races and race walks) must comply with certain criteria in order to be considered eligible for top lists, entry standards, world rankings and world records. This section provides an overview of these criteria and a link to the list of courses (for road events) and competitions (for race walks) which comply with them.

3.1 CERTIFIED ROAD RACES

3.1.1 Marathons and Half Marathons

• All performances must be achieved on a course which holds a valid International Course Measurement Certificate established no more than five years before the date of the race.
• Performances achieved on courses where the start and finish points, measured along a theoretical straight line between them, are further apart than 50% of the race distance
  are:
  • valid for:
    • Legal top list
    • Entry standards
    • World rankings
  • not valid for:
    • world records
• Performances achieved on courses with a drop in elevation between the start and the finish which exceeds 1:1000, i.e. 1m per km, are:
  • valid for:
    • World rankings (where a correction is made to the result score from which points are deducted depending on the drop)
  • not valid for:
    • Legal top lists
    • Entry standards
    • World records

 Link to List of certified marathon and half marathon courses

3.1.2 Other Road Races

• All performances must be achieved on a course which holds a valid Course Measurement established no more than five years before the date of the race. An International measurement Certificate will be required in case of world record. Performances achieved on courses where the start and finish points, measured along a theoretical straight line between them, are further apart than 50% of the race distance are:
  • valid for:
    • Legal top lists
    • World rankings
  • not valid for:
    • world records
• Performances achieved on courses with a drop in elevation between the start and the finish which exceeds 1:1000, i.e. 1m per km, are:
  
  • valid for:
    • World rankings (where a correction is made to the result score from which
      points are deducted depending on the drop)
  • not valid for
    • Legal top list
    • World records

3.2 CERTIFIED RACE WALKING EVENTS

• All performances must be achieved on a course which holds a valid International Course Measurement Certificate established no more than five years before the date of the race in order to be valid for:
  
  • Entry standards (for senior events only)
  • Legal top lists
  • World rankings
  • World records
• Performances achieved on a course which has not been measured, are valid for:
  • Legal top lists
  • Entry standards (U20 events only)
• A minimum of three international or area race walking judges must be on duty in order for the results of the competition to be valid for:
  
  • Entry standards (for senior events only)
  • Legal top lists
  • World rankings
  • World records
• When there is not a minimum of three international or area race walking judges on duty, the results of the competition are valid for:
  
  • Legal top lists
  • Entry standards (U20 events only)

Link to List of certified Race-Walking Competitions

4. TERMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

IAAF uses a set of standardised common terms and abbreviations in athletics. These are detailed in the IAAF Terms and Abbreviations.