AUS Team Manager Appointments for Bathurst and Torun

AMA wishes to announce the appointment of Amanda Coombe as manager for the AMA team competing at the World Masters Cross Country Championship in Bathurst on February 18 & 19th, 2023. This event is in conjunction with the World Athletics Cross Country Championships. Amanda has a lifetime of athletics experience as a competitor, coach and relay selector. She has been able to marry her teaching, personal training and coaching experience into a unique skill set for those that are coached and trained by her and is a Level 2 Accredited coach with Athletics Australia. A former National League Basketball player, Amanda has won numerous State and Australian Masters Athletics Championships over 800m and 1500m and several medals at the world level. She has been an Australian Masters Relay selector 5 times, Manager of State Cross country teams and the Manager of the Australian Ekiden relay team.

 

Steve McGugan has been appointed as the Manager for the AMA team competing at the World Masters Indoor Championship in Torun, Poland, March 26-April 1. Steve was Senior Manager of the AMA team in Perth 2016, Assistant Manager in Lyon 2015, Budepest 2012, Torun 2019 and Chair of the LOC for the Darwin AMAC in 2017. Steve competed in Hurdles, relays and indoor pentathlon and currently holds an AMA record for the 55-59 60M hurdles. As a younger person he played first grade cricket at Mosman, alongside Alan Border and Rugby for the Gordon Club. He has worked professionally in sports as a coaching director and assistant coach with the Sydney Kings and is currently teaching Maths at Darwin High School.  

 

News – WMA
2024 WMA Marathon World Championship

Dear Regional Representatives and WMA Members,

The WMA Council is happy to announce their intention to schedule a WMA Marathon Championship in 2024.

Previously the WMA Marathon has been held in the past as part of our Stadia championships and following the General Assembly decision in Perth in 2016, the first separate WMA Marathon Championship was held in Toronto in 2018. With the advent of Covid it has not been possible until now to continue planning this championship event.

It is desirable that the event is held in conjunction with an already planned local or Masters’ Marathon in any region. WMA would, therefore, be pleased to hear from any Regional Masters organisation or National Federation which might be interested in hosting the event in 2024. Details, guidelines and Bid intention letter will be published soon.

Best Regards

Juan Ordóñez
WMA Secretary

VIDEO: OUR LEAGUE OF EVERDAY HEROES:

Video created by Rob Mayston VMA which epitomises what Master’s Athletics is all about. Shown for the first time at the Melbourne 2019 National Championship, it is all about our 30+ aged Masters athletes who ignore the community stereotype that they are too old, and who continue to run, jump, throw and walk…with some of them still going into their 90s.

Age Grading Leaps Forward – WMA Update

WMA Council has approved use of the updated Age Grading Factors: “WMA Council accepts the statistical analysis undertaking on their behalf by the expert panel on Age Grading. The outcomes of that analysis are implemented globally from the 1st of January 2023 till further notice by all competition organizers affiliated to and operating within the Master Athletics’ structure.”

Age Grading Factors, also known as Tables, were first officially adopted by WMA, then World Association of Veteran Athletes (WAVA), in 1989. They were intended to be used to adjust performances in combined events so scores across all age groups would be consistent. Periodically, updated factors were adopted: in 1994, 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2015.

Oceania Region made a Competition Motion to update Age Grading Tables at the 2018 WMA General Assembly in Málaga, Spain. The motion included reinstating one-year factors. Brian Keaveney, then Vice President of Competition, announced that a committee had been setup.

Brian charged the Age Grading Update Committee with updating the factors by the spring of 2020 for consideration at the General Assembly in Toronto. The committee completed the update plus continued to refine through the spring of 2022.

Previous committees have used several thousand age best performances to derive the factors. The most recent committee used up-to-date age best performances plus over 2.8 million more, including lifetime history for many athletes, to derive the factors. Therefore, the factors are a much more accurate representation of performance decline as athletes age.

The committee noticed that the Parameters (Constants) for women’s hammer produced significantly higher scores than all other events. The committee recommended Parameters for women’s hammer and women’s and men’s weight that were produced proportional scores. WMA Council has approved the recommended Parameters as well.

2023-WMA-COMBINED-EVENT-SCORING –  2023 WMA Age Factors and Parameters for Scoring Combined Events

AUS W50 Relay – Lenore Lambert, Julie Brims, Mandy Mason and Janelle Delaney

WMA Championships Tampere Finland 9/07/2022

World record Time 50:70 breaking the previous 2008 record of 51:50 held by GBR

Photo Jill Taylor