What is Age Grading?
Age grading seeks to “level the playing field”. Take, for example, the following four parkrunners: a 9 year old girl who finishes with a time of 29:15, a 23 year old male with a time of 21:30, a 65 year old man on 27:57, and a 75 year old woman with a time of 40:25. Although their absolute finish times are different they all share exactly the same level of performance/fitness when age and sex are taken into account. To be specific, they all have exactly the same age-graded percentage “score” of 60%.
This score is the ratio of your own finish time against the world record for your sex and age, expressed as a percentage. For example, if you take 40 minutes to complete a parkrun and the world record for your age and sex is 20 minutes, your age graded percentage score is 50%.
This score allows you to compare your personal performance against others even though they might be a different age and/or a different sex to you. The boffins at parkrun HQ don’t disclose the exact numbers they use – but they are broadly based on the WMA (World Master Athletics) 2006/2010 tables for track 5k records. – to which they have added figures for 4 year olds and over 100s!
- Above 40% – You’re faster/fitter than the average person
- Above 50% – You’re doing pretty good!
- Above 60% – Local club class level
- Above 70% – Regional class level
- Above 80% – National class Level
- Above 90% – World class level
- Above 100% – World record level performance (although may not be official)
