Standards

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Standards

Update December 2008

A number of members have commented on the unequal degree of difficulty of the club’s standards. The committee decided to investigate in July, and discovered that the time required for the club’s gold standard varied from 72% to 81% on the age-graded scales. (These scales compare times with a basket of the top world times produced by a number of elite athletes in each 5 year age-group.) So the decision was taken to revise the club’s standards in order to make them more homogeneous.

Lively discussion took place, based on the premise that the bronze standard should be within the reach of all moderately-capable club runners who train consistently. To achieve the gold standard, the runner should be able to compete with the top runners from other clubs in age-graded competitions. The silver standard should be set at a level between these two. It was agreed unanimously that the diamond standard is reserved for those exceptional athletes who feature prominently in published national rankings.

There followed a comprehensive revision of the standards, which culminated in the use of these age-graded levels:

Bronze 65%

Silver 70%

Gold 75%

Diamond 85%

The committee has discussed these at some length, comparing the achievements of a number of “sample” club members to see how it affected their status against the standards. In a number of cases there is some change of level, with the main effect being on women in the upper age-groups. The committee recommends these to members as the club’s standards for the years 2009-2011. A review should then take place in line with the new WMA standards to be released in 2011.

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