Dave Clingan has clarified some aspects of the new online USATF masters rankings. But the more he shares, the more excited I get. (There’s even a chance of ME making the rankings!) First question: Will meet directors continue to send results from Hy-Tek software or somehow enter results via the interface? Dave replies: “We will be able to import results from Hy-Tek and other common data files, when meet directors provide them to us. This will still require manual oversight to insure the data is accurate and duplication of names is corrected as necessary.”

The Q&A continues:
Ken: How deep will the rankings go? Top 25 or longer?
Dave: We will be going 25 deep initially (plus top 10 hand times), but there is
nothing (other than possible download delays for large amounts of data) preventing access to deeper rankings. We can experiment with this and, possibly, allow the viewer to specify how deep they would like the rankings to be displayed.
How will you deal with duplicate names (Bill Murray vs. William Murray in the HJ, for example?)
There’s no easy solution to this problem. Once an athlete is in the database, his/her name will be retreived via a matching feature whenever he/she enters new marks, so variations will be minimized to some extent. It is only when importanting entire files of data when these variations are likely to occur, so I will have to keep an eye out for them periodically and resolve them manually.
What’s the punishment for bogus entries?
No punishment, really. As rankings administrator, I will simply remove any marks that are bogus from the lists. We haven’t really discussed this, but I could probably have a tool which enables me to block the system from accepting marks from anyone with a given name and date of birth. I doubt this would ever be necessary.
Have you thought of selling/licensing your software to WMA and other national governing bodies?
We still have work to do on this project, but some other similar sport committees might be interested, especially those who compete in multiple age-groups.
When will the age database and athlete database be up? Now dead links.
Actually these functions already work. If you click on an age group (eg M45) wherever you see it in a blue bar, all the marks from that age group will be displayed. Similarly, if you click on an athlete’s name anywhere you see it, all of his/her marks will be displayed. What has not been implemented yet are the index page access routes into these lists via submenus, which should be available soon.
How many hours of combined work did it take to come up with this latest rankings software?
John (Seto) did all the heavy lifting on this project, so he should answer that one. I’ve probably spend about 40 hours on this in various capacities. Larry (Patz) has done a lot of work as well.
Am I correct in assuming that results entered online can be seen immediately? Or is there a lag time?
Correct. There is no lag time!
Who is the ultimate arbiter of whether a ranking should be yanked?
That would be my responsibility, as rankings coordinator.
Did USATF webmaster Keith Lively (or anyone outside your committee) help with this new system?
No.
One more feature I would like to point out. As a long-term objective, these rankings could become the all-time top performance lists for masters track and field. That is something our sport really needs, for historical purposes. To make that happen we will need to import all past years rankings data into the system, as well as past championship meet results and other available data. It will be a project processing all that data, but this system has the capability to
sort the data and display the best ever marks in all events and age groups.
Me again:
The potential of this system is mind-boggling.
If it works as advertised over the course of the seasons (indoors and outdoors), we should demand that it be adopted by World Masters Athletics. Only then can we truly know how we stand at any point in the season. And better than the big boyz Top Lists at IAAF.
With real-time results and rankings available to athletes, fans and media outlets worldwide, masters track will truly have come of age!