World Record Age Brackets for Older Rowers

[Robt.Lee]

While the 2K has age brackets every five years, the other world records age brackets are ten years wide. For older rowers a year or two makes a big difference. I would like to see world records posted for five year intervals for all ranking distances. Think about it, once you are 82, you have to make it 8 more years before you can even try for a record.

[Ralph Earle]

C2 needs to get with it and adopt FISA's age groups:
13-18
19-26
27-35
36-42
43-49
50-54
55-59
55-59
60-64
65-69
70-74
70-74
75-79
80-84
85-89**
90-94
95-99
100+

But someone would have to search the rankings, race results and team trials going back "forever" for at least the 2K, 6K, 30min, 60min, HM and Marathon.* (Anyone know of other ranked distances that are raced?)

Any idle retired ergers want to form an ad-hoc group to do the research? I'm in.

* Edit: I don't mean that WRs have to be race results or team trials -- just that times from such events are witnessed.
**Edit: I think it makes sense to keep going in five year increments. There are probably more 85+ year olds able to sit on an erg than row on the water.

[Bob S.]

But someone would have to search the rankings, race results and team trials going back "forever" for at least the 2K, 6K, 30min, 60min, HM and Marathon.* (Anyone know of other ranked distances that are raced?)

Most likely the records would be based only on times and distances set after a new age grouping would be set up, which seems to have been what was done around the 2003 season when the current system was set up. The old records before that were based on people sending in their results by paper mail and there was no WR list per se. One just looked at the time/distance list for each category. The 2k was different; it has always had the requirement of having been done at a public event - as far as I know.

There is some indication that the new ranked pieces, the 100m and the 1', will be included in the WR list later this year. The rankings for those are available only for the 2016 season, so I assume that earlier records will not be valid. The 4' and the 100km have been in the rankings for a long time, but have never been included in the C2 WR list. I haven't heard whether or not there is likely to be any change for those events.

On another issue, it seems reasonable to drop the weight categories for 85+ and up. For men, at least, the weight advantage seems to disappear at around 85 - perhaps earlier for women. I would not be happy if that change were made, but it does make sense to me.

Bob S.

[tortoise]

On another issue, it seems reasonable to drop the weight categories for 85+ and up. For men, at least, the weight advantage seems to disappear at around 85 - perhaps earlier for women. I would not be happy if that change were made, but it does make sense to me.

Bob S.

The sample of 85+ ergers is so small that maybe there's some really fit big man or woman who hasn't tried the sport yet, and would blow away the record. We'd have to reinstate the categories.

I can see no downside to the five year brackets.

[Ralph Earle]

tortoise wrote

I can see no downside to the five year brackets.

Edited first post to continue 5-year brackets after age 85.

[Robt.Lee]

I would help research this, but it really has to be done by C2.
I would be glad to write a SQL query that would pull the data out of the database, but they have someone who could do that and integrate into the web page. I have pulled out data for the fastest 2K for men and women from age 5-99 going back to 1996. I don't know how far back the data goes.

[Ralph Earle]

I would help research this, but it really has to be done by C2.
I would be glad to write a SQL query that would pull the data out of the database, but they have someone who could do that and integrate into the web page. I have pulled out data for the fastest 2K for men and women from age 5-99 going back to 1996. I don't know how far back the data goes.

Wow - that's impressive! C2 gave you access to their database?

[Citroen]

I would help research this, but it really has to be done by C2.
I would be glad to write a SQL query that would pull the data out of the database, but they have someone who could do that and integrate into the web page. I have pulled out data for the fastest 2K for men and women from age 5-99 going back to 1996. I don't know how far back the data goes.

Wow - that's impressive! C2 gave you access to their database?

I can pull the data by scraping the website, but it's not that easy to do.

I'm pulling logged distances from: http://log.concept2.com/challenge/univD ... ?univID=55 every day.

[mmayzak]

I would like to have a US record some day... ...

[PaulH]

In the past C2 have been reluctant* to provide access to their database, so screen-scraping would be the way to go. There needs to be some basic sanitising of the data as well - every so often you see a result that has clearly been mis-logged (or there are a lot of 101 year olds putting in some sterling efforts, for example!) More advanced cleanup is tricky - for the Nonathlon I've excluded some times for being too outstanding (e.g. 50 year olds rowing faster than the fastest 20-30 year olds), but it's possible that I've discarded some legitimate results.

See https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/228 ... -2016.xlsx for some handy data (slightly out of date, but with winter on its way I'll be updating it soon enough)


*i.e. they don't