Why Shaili Singh's 6.59m jump will not be considered as her personal best or a national record?

Though no Indian woman ever in the U20 level has jumped 6.59m before, Shaili's attempt will not be counted as a national record or even her personal best.

Why Shaili's jump won't be counted as a record?

Shaili Singh jumped 6.59m in her third attempt at the finals of the women's long jump event at the U20 Athletics World Championship. However, her jump was laced with +2.2m/s. This is where the calculation changes. The +2.2 m/s signifies the wind assistance Shaili got during her jump of 6.59m.

In any track and field event, wind assistance is the advantage an athlete gets during a race or an event as registered by a wind gauge. Wind is one of the forms of weather that affects sport.

The tailwind helps to enhance the speed of an athlete in events like sprint races (100 and 200m), 100/110m hurdles, the triple jump and the long jump. The IAAF has set a limit on how much wind assistance an athlete may perform under if the performance is to establish a record.

If wind assistance exceeds 2m/s the result cannot be registered as a record on any level. However, the results within that competition still are valid because all athletes in a race would get equal assistance, and in-field events it is just the luck of the circumstance at the moment of the attempt. The wind assistance maximums are only in regard to the validation of a record. The exceptions are the combined events like heptathlon and decathlon.

Due to this +2m/s rule, Shaili's jump stands invalid for a record as she has got wind assistance of +2.2m/s. Anju Bobby George holds the national record, among women, with a jump of 6.83 m (+1.2 m/s) achieved at the Athens Olympics in 2004.