What Is Age Grading in Running?

Male by nature are of different strength than those of female. On the same law of nature, all men or women lose strength and slow down with AGE. While we see our local or even world class elite runners post their podium finishes, it makes us wonder if there would be a system that can be used to compare our own individual performance with those of different age and/or different sex for a specific distance.


Yes there is such a method and this was developed in 1989 by the WORLD ASSOCIATION of VETERAN ATHLETES or WAVA.

To understand completely the method, I wish to share a link posted by David Siconolfi of CompuScore Computer Services on his article “What is Age Grading?”

Having been enlightened by the above article, we can now use Age Grading Calculators which can be found in the internet. I would however wish to share the Age Grading Calculator posted by Runners World which is that of HOWARD GRUBB based on the 2006 Age Grading Tables developed by World Masters Athletics (WMA). Try the using the AGE GRADING CALCULATOR

Should you wish to find out how your last performance was compared to World Record in percentage output be or should you wish to find out your adjusted finish time for your age, try playing with the calculator. You will be surprise of the results! Locally even MILO Marathon for this year 2010 will be adapting AGE QUALIFYING TIMES to make the playing field even.