Courtesy: USAT

The USA Triathlon 2002 age group rankings have been posted to the organization's web site at www.usatriathlon.org.

USA Triathlon and its rankings partner, Timberline Timing, ranked 16,475 USA Triathlon members, a new rankings record. In 2001, 11,895 triathletes and duathletes were ranked.

To be included in the rankings, an athlete had to be a USA Triathlon annual member by Oct. 31, 2002, and had to race in three USA Triathlon-sanctioned triathlons or duathlons. The athlete's top three results are used for the ranking.

Timberline Timing has also provided a breakdown of those members who were ranked.

Of the 16,475 ranked athletes, 4,882, or right around 30 percent, were women.

The age group with the most ranked members was 30-34 at 21 percent. The next highest was 35-39 at 19 percent and 40-44 at 16 percent. The 25-29 age group made up 13 percent of the ranked athletes and the 45-49 group made up 10 percent.

The discipline of duathlon saw 743 members ranked, or around 5 percent of the total number.

There were 791 All Americans named in triathlon and 1,581 honorable mentions. In duathlon, there were 49 All Americans and 98 honorable mentions.

In 2002, 777 events were scored out of a possible 814. To be used in the rankings, an event must be USA Triathlon sanctioned, have results in electronic format and return all post-race money and materials to USA Triathlon.

To view the 2002 age group rankings, go to the USA Triathlon web site at www.usatriathlon.org and click on the "age groups" button and then "2002 rankings." To view the USAT/SMW regional rankings, click www.runnertriathletenews.com/features/usat_rankings .