NEW WMA AGE GRADING TABLES HOLD SURPRISES
After more than ten years the new revised Masters Age Grading Tables have been released by the World Veterans Athletics. Compiled for use by long distance running and track and field statisticians, the first table was published in 1989 and was soon followed in 1994 with a revision. The most recent has been long awaited and was delayed when the laptop computer containing the original and only copies of some of the age grading factors was stolen. Those that were lost had to be completely recreated, a task that took several months.
Age grading is best described as a handicapping system whereby athletes of various ages are graded by their age to make a level playing field when comparing their performances in a given event. The data used is multi dimensional and partly from world records and other performances. It is routinely used in Masters Track and Field and in Long Distance Running to select the top performers. In New Jersey it is derigueur for awarding prize money to Masters runners in Long Distance Running events, and in particular in USATF-NJ Championships, following recommendations from the national committee.
Premier race scorer Dave Siconolfi (Pictured below) of CompuScore has been installing the new tables in his computer program. He did an analysis of two highly competitive races in 2005 to see what changed for the Masters athletes. Looking at the President’s Cup Night Race 5K and the Liberty Waterfront Half Marathon he was surprised by the differences from the old tables to the new.
“We saw some dramatic differences,” said Siconolfi. “The
women changed the highest. It looks like we’ve leveled the field
for the men and women.”
“The percentages changed for each age, and some were significantly higher but none of the ages decreased,” he said. “All PLP’s [percentage level performance] increased under the new system.”
In the President’s Cup in 2005 Drew Davis of East Stroudsburg was the top age graded masters man with an 87.6% for his 15:44 at age 43. With the new tables his PLP would be 88.7%, up 1.10 percent, but his position would remain the same.
In the same race, Toshiko D’elia of Ridgewood, who at 75 ran 27:48 for 80.2% and placed second, would see a jump of 8.2 percentage points to 88.4% and would rank first among all masters women. Imme Dyson, 68, of Princeton ranked fifth under the old tables with her time of 25:22 graded at 79.2%, would have moved up to second with a grading of 86.0%.
With the Liberty Waterfront Half Marathon the story is much the same. Feliciano Pereira 60, of Union, ranked first in the Masters Age grading and would have ranked first under the new tables, with Ken Rolek, of Easton second and Bruce Langenkamp of Wharton third, just as they were under the old tables.
Again, with the women, there would be changes. Dyson would stay in first place but her age graded PLP would have gone from 80.2% to 88.3%. Anna Thornhill, 65, of New York, NY, would have seen her score go up from 79.9% to 87.1% and would have moved from third to second place. The biggest change would be for Dorothy Little of Hopewell, age 66, who scored eighth in the half marathon with her 76.7% but who would have moved up to third with her new 83.9% PLP.
To many, these significant increases may seem bizarre and out of line but as Roger Price (pictured below) of Piscataway, the Masters LDR Chair explains, the New Jersey senior women have been among those who are setting the standards that are used.
“On the national level of road racing, the only athletes in New
Jersey who have been able to reach the top five [in their age division],
which is used for selection at the national convention for athlete of the
year, are Anna Thornhill in W60, Dorothy Little and Imme Dyson in W65 and
Toshiko D’elia in W70.”
“Nobody else [in New Jersey] has been able to reach that level,” said Price. “So it’s obvious that they are the crème de la creme of the country.”
Siconolfi will have the new tables completely installed in his program for the races that are coming up beginning in March, including the Newark Distance Classic 20K on March 5th. The Classic has Championship prize money for the open athletes going ten deep and seven places deep to the top New Jersey Masters based on the new WMA age graded tables. To see the comparison between the 1994 and the new table applied to the 2005 President’s Cup Night Race 5K look here .
Published in the DAILY RECORD of Morris County on Sunday, February 5, 2006
Copyright, MADELINE BOST, 2006
