Summary of key changes to IAAF Competition Rules, as of June 2018

Ahead of the IAAF World U20 Championships Tampere 2018, the first IAAF outdoor track and field championship of the year, the IAAF has compiled a summary of the key changes made to the 2018-2019 IAAF Competition Rules.

Since coming into force on 1 November 2017, various rule amendments have been made, all of which can be found in the Rules and Regulations section of the IAAF website.

The below list is intended to highlight the more significant changes so that athletes, coaches and officials are aware of the latest version of the rules.

Rule changes as of June 2018

Rule 143: Clothing, shoes and athlete bibs
- Any type of shoe used must be reasonably available to all in the spirit of the universality of athletics. Shoes must not be constructed so as to give athletes any unfair assistance or advantage.
- Horizontal jumpers are no longer required to wear two bibs.

Rule 170: Relay races
- The 10-metre acceleration zone and 20-metre takeover zone for each changeover in 4x100m 4x200m relays (where applicable) has now been merged into one 30-metre takeover zone.

Rule 187.14(b): General conditions – throwing events (from a circle)
- Any ineffectual touches of the top of the iron band or the ground outside in the back half of the circle during the first circular rotation in throwing events – provided that the touch does not provide any form of leverage or propulsion – will not be considered a foul.

Rule 261: Events for which world records are recognised
- 15km, 20km, 25km and 30km (road) are no longer official world record events.
- 5km (road) is an official world record event. Initial record to be recognised after 1 January 2018. The performances shall be equal to or better than 13:10 (men) and 14:45 (women). If no such performances are achieved in 2018, the best performances of 2018 are recognised on 1 January 2019.
- Initial record to be recognised for the women’s 50,000m race walk (track) after 1 January 2018. The performance shall be equal to or better than 4:20. If no such performance is achieved in 2018, the best performance of 2018 is recognised on 1 January 2019.

Rule 265: Other records
- Local and regional competitions can establish their own criteria for championship records.