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SPRINTERS could get a bigger boost on windy days than athletics authorities
ever imagined. Winds are measured on the straight part of the track, and a head
or tailwind greater than 5 metres per second disqualifies a time from the record
books. Crosswinds are ignored, but because the 200-metre sprint is run around
the corner of the track, this is a mistake, says physicist Jonas Mureika from
the University of Toronto. In a future issue of New Studies in
Athletics, he calculates runners could gain up to 0.6 seconds with a helpful
crosswind—a huge amount in a race that can be won by 0.01 seconds.