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Male Grand Master Performance of the Year...

Saturday, 25 January 2020 23:10

TONY SCHILLER, 61, is one of the most talented Grand Masters in the World, not just the USA or the Midwest region. It was obvious to us, therefore, that one of his 2019 results would be the unofficial GM Performance of the Year.

Let's look at his 2019 resume:

- 8th overall / 1st 50+ at Lake Minnetonka - A truly remarkable peformance, his 1:08:52 lowered the 10-year-old 60-64 record by 5:35, a mark that was set by national classer Ben Ewers.

- 8th overall / 1st 50+ at Heart of the Lakes - At age 60 in 2018, Tony nuked the old 60-64M record by 9:06. In '19 at age 61, he improved on that 1:40:24, taking it down to 1:39:02.

- 1st AG @ USA Triathlon AG Nationals (Olympic Distance) - Against a 106-member 60-64 field, he beat the next fastest guy by 3:51.

- 1st AG @ USA Triathlon AG Nationals (Sprint) - His margin of victory over the second place man in the 63-finisher field was exactly 1-minute.

The 2019 Male GMOY Performance of the Year? ...

For us, it comes down to his Minnesota results. His efforts at Nationals were very good, but we compared his times with those of the 55-59 AG. Was he competitive with those guys? When he's "on," we'd expect his time to be good enough to podium, or come darn close to doing so. At 2019 Nationals, his times would have placed him 5th among the 55-59ers in the Olympic race, and 7th in the Sprint.

Had he raced at Nationals the way he performed at LMT and HOLT, we believe his times would have been good enough to land him on the podium in the 55-59. 

So, which of his local performances best deserve the unofficial GM POY? We support his HOLT effort because he torched his AG's record in 2018, then came back to lower it even further in 2019.

Older athletes are expected to get slower, year-by-year. Obviously, Tony did not get that memo.