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Relying on Our "Numbers Nerd"...

Thursday, 30 October 2014 01:10

ED. Stephen Bullard has been an invaluable member of the MMA Selection Committee since 2002. This year the Selectors were split on who to name as Male Master of the Year. We relied on Stephen, the Committee's resident numbers nerd, who has developed a very conservative age-grading system, to change some minds.

By Stephen Bullard

Minnesota Multisport Awards - This year's men's master award (40-59) was age graded, meaning older triathletes times in this category are handicapped to compare results and times for award purposes. After researching age graded calculators for swimming, biking, and running, a system of handicapping was developed to even the playing field and to allow comparison of a 41 year old  against the results of a 56 year old. Basically, the formula assumes in a triathlon, where the bike leg time makes up roughly half of the total time to complete triathlons, the triathlete will slow down .7% in time each year after 40....

All candidates this year were strong. Chap Achen, Tony Schiller, Brian Bich and Kevin O'connor all had impressive resumes of results in 2014. The awards committees looks at several facets when determining an award winner. Volume of races, head to head competition, placement against top competion, Fast times and course records at events, Diversity of race distances (Sprint to Ironman events), Quality of the field in the events they enter.

When looking at this set of criteria it became evident that Achen's times were not on an age graded par with the others. A closer look revealed that, although Kevin O'Connor had the edge on volume of races and diversity of distances, his times when age graded against Schiller and Bich were also not quite at the same level. His superior volume and diversity was not enough to offset slower age graded race times.

When comparing Bich and Schiller neither had a diversity of races but Schiller had 6 multisport results whereas Bich only had 3 triathlon results, the bare minimum to be considered, giving Schiller the advantage from this standpoint,

When looking at their times at their events Bich had the edge as his age graded time at Heart of the Lakes was faster than Schiller's and just a handful of seconds faster in the Standard/Olympic distance race at Nationals.

But the deciding factor was Schiller's two performances at Nationals in Milwaukee. Due to the ease of traveling to Milwaukee, Good reviews from the first year, and the fact that triathletes could qualify for The World Championship that would be in Chicago next year, Nationals were the largest most competitive age group Nationals in the history of the sport. At these nationals Schiller showed up and raced the Standard/Olympic distance and the sprint distance over two days and won his age group both days. The ONLY athlete at Nationals to do this. Bich had a great nationals with a age graded time that was a even few seconds faster than Schillers', and he won 2nd in his age group but what Schiller accomplished with his double was historic. In fact, Schiler's time in the sprint (when age graded) was faster than the overall Sprint Nationals winning time.    

It is for these reasons that a majority of Committee members supported Tony Schiller as 2014 Minnesota Male Master of the Year.

Photo Above - Stephen with his gorgeous daughter, Sydney.