Recently, age grading of races has become very popular. Since age has
such a predictible (albeit, unfortunate) effect on performance,
statistics have been compiled by the World Association of Veteran Athletes
(WAVA) to compare runners of different ages. Two different measures
are illustrated in the partial results from the 1997 Jan Peek 10K below.
Age Graded Time: This gives the time a runner would have run during
peak years, between 20 and the mid 30's. Below, the winner, Alonso Rendon's
time is unadjusted, because he is in his peak years. Ray Marrero's time
(place 48) is adjusted downward by almost 5 minutes, indicating that he
could have run this race that much faster in his prime.
Age Graded Percent: This figure compares the runner's performance
in the race to the best performance at that age and sex. Anibal Barrero
ran
70 percent of the world record for a 48 year old male in a 10K. According
to WAVA, these percentages can be categorized as follows:
100% = Approximate world record
Over 90% = World Class
Over 80% = National Class
Over 70% = Regional Class
Over 60% = Local Class
Age Graded Place: If the race results were reordered by the age
adjusted times, this would be the order of finish. Notice that 61 year old
Michael
Goldman, had everyone been the same age, would have won this race.
All Sex Age Name Time Agegraded Percent Place 1 1 0 Alonso Rendon, 25 34:47 34:47 77.5% 3 2 2 0 Colin McComb, 24 35:06 35:06 76.8% 5 3 3 0 Wayne Beam, 35 35:16 35:16 76.5% 7 4 4 1 Greg Diamond, 40 36:22 35:12 76.6% 6 5 5 1 Mauricio Venegas, 31 36:25 36:25 74.1% 11 6 6 1 Stephen Siebrecht, 18 36:58 36:27 74.0% 12 7 7 2 Jay Duggan, 37 37:18 36:52 73.2% 14 8 8 2 Paul Fitzpatrick, 42 37:28 35:45 75.5% 9 9 9 1 Angel Cumbe, 24 37:29 37:29 72.0% 17 10 10 3 Edwin Tinco, 33 37:31 37:31 71.9% 18 ..... 39 38 6 Jose Blanek, 16 42:08 40:48 66.1% 50 40 39 9 Anibal Barrero, 48 42:15 38:32 70.0% 25 41 40 5 Anthony Calderon, 23 42:27 42:27 63.5% 71 42 41 1 Michael Goldman, 61 42:33 34:42 77.7% 1 43 42 10 Tommy Bertolini, 42 42:42 40:44 66.2% 48 44 43 11 Joseph Reddan, 42 42:48 40:50 66.1% 52 45 44 16 John Brady, 36 42:53 42:41 63.2% 73 46 45 6 Leo Sanchez, 22 43:08 43:08 62.5% 77 47 46 17 John Finger, 39 43:08 42:03 64.2% 66 48 47 3 Ray Marrero, 50 43:10 38:46 69.6% 28 49 48 12 Howard Brynin, 40 43:12 41:49 64.5% 62 50 2 0 Nancy Venegas, 30 43:13 43:13 69.2% 78