The World Masters Athletics (WMA), formerly World Association of Veteran Athletes (WAVA), Age Graded Tables first published in 1989 and updated in 2006, provide the basis for comparing athletic performances for different ages, genders, and between different events.

These tables are based on the world best times or distances either actually recorded or calculated for each age between 8 and 100 years for every recognised track and field and road race event.

Because they provide a world standard for each event at each age they enable each performance by an athlete, male or female, junior or senior, to be compared with the recognised world best for their age and expressed as a percentage.

For example, a 17 year old male sprinter runs 13.5s for 100m and the Age Graded Tables give the world best time as 10.16s for this age. The age graded percentage is calculated as 10.16/13.5 x 100% or 75.3%. We as a Club use these tables for calculating the Grand Prix scores for our three Grand Prix competitions – Junior GP, Road Race GP and Senior Track & Field GP.

There are now on-line calculators for calculating a WMA score for any performance. The link below takes you to the one we use, instructions are provided – all you need to do is select the event, enter your performance, gender and age and the calculator will provide your % score.

Here is a link to the WMA on-line calculator of age graded scores. All you will need to do is enter the event, your age and performance.

Sevenoaks AC - organiser of the Sevenoaks Seven - also has its own (road only) calculator.