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Promised Changes & Improvements
Site is constantly evolving so check in frequently!
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Many of you frequently tell me that you didn’t know something about the site. Part of the reason for this is there is much more to the site than most realize. The site is inspired by you and all the things that you tell me are important: rankings lists, competitions, data analysis, comparisons and fostering camaraderie to name a few. The vast majority of what I plan for this site is based on your feedback and I try to keep my plans updated so you know what is being developed and the target. Progress is made every week on adding features and making improvements.
50 meters is now a ranked event: The original criterion for an event to be ranked, before this was a worldwide site, was to include any event contested at a USATF Championship. This helped to ensure rankings lists were meaningful by avoiding having events with only dozens of athletes across all age groups. 50 meters was the first additional ranked event since it is widely contested – others will follow. Please let me know what other events you think should be ranked (consider how many competitors would be listed).
Need to find Competitions: Athletes can help the Upcoming Competitions section be really useful for everyone by either Submitting Upcoming Competition information or asking meet organizers to do it. We will add search functions that will make it very easy to find the competitions fitting your needs as this feature gets developed further.
Competition Promotion: People have told me the Competition Promotion Email was really helpful to show additional reasons to participate. The emails will keep coming and the promotions will also be here. National Representatives and Meet Organizers: please send me information on your competitions and I will work with you to promote them the site has been visited by over 325,000 people in the past two years and these promotions are seen by a minimum of 25,000 people (through the emails, website and Facebook postings).
Contacting other athletes: There are several features like an athlete forum, personalizing your profile and contacting other athletes (their choice to receive message – no personal information released). that should be added this year.
Photographers: Their work is invaluable to Masters Athletes. MastersRankings is devoted to promoting and helping those who serve Masters Athletes and Photographers are clearly in that category. Hope to have a special feature on the site within the next few months.
Policies: Why are there Indoor performances during summer months? When are rankings lists finalized? Is my jump eligible for listing? These questions and many more, especially considering all the new visitors to the site, are answered by MastersRankings’ long standing policies. Unfortunately, these have not been posted to the site. Policies will be published on the site by the end of April 2017. Please review this list and let me know what other policies you think should be posted.
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Most have no idea how much went into getting this site to where it is today. Everyone who visits the site sees there have been hundreds of thousands of results inserted mostly thanks to a small handful of people dedicated to helping this site – all for Masters Athletes. Additionally, three people have gone further sharing their ideas how the site could better serve Masters Athletes, developed programs to make inserting results more efficient, testing & acting as a guinea pig, offered encouragement and so much more. I am deeply grateful to these people.
- 20,380 Performances Added (949 by Athletes)
- Representing 7,469 Athletes from 58 Countries
- 1,415 new athletes listed
- Saul:n Sm-Kilpailut, FIN
- Championnats de France Masters En Salle, FRA
- USATF Masters Indoor Championships, USA
- Veteran-Sm Inomhus, SWE
- AV Shield Final, AUS
- NZ Masters Games, NZL
- USATF Masters Indoor Heptathlon and Midwest Regional Championships, USA
- Danish Indoor Masters Championships , DEN
- Cto. de Canarias de Lanzamientos Largos de Veteranos, ESP
- Ontario Masters Athletics Winter Mini Meet #2, CAN
Many have asked for Age Grades ( about Age Grading ) on the rankings site so it is now added to each rankings list, meet results and athletes’ profiles. I’ve even used this as another tool to identify potentially inaccurate performances. There is an experimental age graded rankings list too. These are members’ exclusive features (about Memberships). Some other (trial features) members now enjoy or will within the next few weeks:
- View rankings lists you want to see (set default list preferences)
- View all performances and perform advanced comparisons.
- View age grades on Rankings Lists, Meet Results and Athlete Profiles.
- View Age Graded Rankings (two different lists – click for experimental version)
- Google ad free site
- Pre-fill submit results form further (coming in March)
Members, please take the survey, tell me what features members should have and what should be available to everyone?
National Masters News is more than just a Masters Track & Field results publication. In addition to all the great meet highlights, athlete focuses and meet results, the News also has training tips, human interest stories, Road Racing, Race Walking, Cross Country and more. Catch Carroll DeWeese’s “Fit with Fat”, Benita Lee’s “Master Your Health”, Paul Carlin’s USATF Club Cross Country Champions article, Jerry Bookin-Weiner’s Throwers Circle, Rex Harvey’s From the USATF MTF Chair and much more in this month’s issue.
