Certified 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.
1. Certified Road Races
1 mile, 5km, 10km, half marathons, 35km, marathons, 50km and 100km
World Athletics rules – All performances must be achieved at a competition conducted according to World Athletics rules
Course measurement – 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.
Separation between start and finish – 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:
not valid for:
- world records
valid for:
- legal top lists
- entry standards
- world rankings
Elevation drop – 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:
not valid for:
- legal top lists
- entry standards
- world records
valid for:
- world rankings (where a correction is made to the result score from which points are deducted depending on the drop)
Other road races
World Athletics rules – All performances must be achieved at a competition conducted according to World Athletics rules
Course measurement – 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.
Separation between start and finish – 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:
not valid for:
- world records
valid for:
- legal top lists
- world rankings
Elevation drop – 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:
not valid for:
- legal top lists
- world records
Valid for:
- world rankings (where a correction is made to the result score from which points are deducted depending on the drop)
2. Certified race walking events
World Athletics rules – All performances must be achieved at a competition conducted according to World Athletics rules.
Course measurement
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)
International judges
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)
