WA (World Athletics) Product Certificate and Facility Certificate

WA (World Athletics) Product Certificate and Facility Certificate

World Athletics (abbreviated as WA), formerly known as International Association of Athletics Federation ( abbreviated as IAAF ) is the international governing body for the sport of athletics. It is in charge of the the standardization of rules and regulations for the sports, certification of athletic facilities.

WA Certificate (or IAAF Certificate) is the certificate issued by the WA to recognize that the product or the facility meet all the technical requirements of the World Athletics Rules for the relevant competitions.

There are two main categories of the certification system: 1) certification of synthetic track and runway surfacing products (synthetic surface products ), simply put as product certificate 2) certification of track and filed facilities, simply put as facility certificate. 

The first category is certificate for product, meaning the product that produced by manufacturers has been proven to conform to the Track and Runway Synthetic Surface Testing Specifications. The second one is certificate for the track and field facilities, that is  not only the synthetic surface product used on the facilities is WA approved, but also the other aspects of the track and facilities such as the layout, length, incline and markings of the track, the steeplechase track, facility for jumping events and facility for throwing events.

In short, the WA product certificate is the prerequisite of the WA facility certificate.

In terms of certification of track and filed facilities, WA issue three types of certificates:  
 
  1. IAAF Class 1 Athletics Facility Certificate
For competition technical facilities conforming in all respects with the requirements of Rules 140.
 
  1. IAAF Class 2 Athletics Facility Certificate
For competition technical facilities in which the in-situ tests for compliance with the IAAF Track and Runway Synthetic Surface Testing Specifications have not been performed but where the synthetic surface has a valid IAAF Product Certificate and where the facility conforms to the stringent requirements for accurate measurement contained in IAAF Rules.
 
  1. IAAF Indoor Athletics Facility Certificate
For competition technical facilities conforming in all respects with the
requirements of Rules 211.


Reference
IAAF Certification System – Procedures.(n.d.). Retrieved November, 18, 2018 from https://www.worldathletics.org/about-iaaf/documents/technical-information