Wind adjusted 100m and 200m time calculator
Enter your time and the wind reading to see what the run is worth in still air, and how fast it would be in other winds.
The same run in other winds
zero-wind = t + (−0.0449 + 0.009459·t)·w − 0.0042·w²
How the wind adjustment works
A tailwind pushes you along and a headwind holds you back. The effect is not the same for everyone: in the 100m a slower athlete spends longer in the wind, so the same breeze is worth more time.
The calculator uses the model from Moinat, Fabius and Emanuel (2018, European Journal of Sport Science), fitted to 150,169 competition results. For the 100m the wind effect depends on your time; for the 200m it does not:
- 100m: t₀ = t + (−0.0449 + 0.009459·t)·w − 0.0042·w²
- 200m: t₀ = t + 0.090·w − 0.010·w²
t is your time in seconds, w the wind in m/s (+ tailwind, − headwind) and t₀ the zero-wind time.
100m examples
| Time | Wind | Zero wind |
|---|---|---|
| 10.00 | +2.0 | 10.08 |
| 10.50 | +1.5 | 10.57 |
| 11.00 | −1.0 | 10.94 |
| 12.00 | +2.0 | 12.12 |
| 12.50 | −2.0 | 12.34 |
Questions
How do you adjust a 100m time for wind?
Add the wind effect to your time. For the 100m, zero-wind time = t + (−0.0449 + 0.009459 × t) × w − 0.0042 × w², with t in seconds and w the wind in m/s (positive for a tailwind). The model is from Moinat, Fabius and Emanuel (2018), fitted to 150,169 competition results.
How much does a +2.0 m/s tailwind help in the 100m?
About 0.08 s for a 10-second sprinter and 0.12 s for a 12-second one, because a slower athlete spends longer in the wind. A 12.00 run with +2.0 m/s is worth 12.12 in still air, and a 10.00 is worth 10.08.
What is the legal wind limit for sprint records?
World Athletics allows a following wind of up to +2.0 m/s for records and rankings in the 100m, 200m, 100m and 110m hurdles, long jump and triple jump. Anything above is marked wind-aided.
Does a headwind slow you down as much as a tailwind helps?
A headwind costs a little more than the same tailwind gives back, because air resistance grows with the square of your speed through the air. The quadratic term in the formula accounts for this.
Is this the same formula the TrackSpeed app uses?
Yes. The calculator uses the same coefficients and equations as the wind calculator in the TrackSpeed iOS app, so both give the same answer.
Time your sprints with your phone.
TrackSpeed times sprints with iPhone cameras, from 10m flys to full 100m runs, and has this wind calculator built in.
