The 2001 USA Triathlon age group national rankings will be unveiled next week on the USA Triathlon web site (www.USATriathlon.org). The rankings are a fundamental service for USA Triathlon's 31,000 annual members. They provide end of year rankings in the 68 total age groups from the sports of triathlon and duathlon. Athletes must compete in at least three USA Triathlon sanctioned races to be eligible for the rankings program. In 2000, 9,304 athletes were ranked. In 2001, 11,895 are being ranked, an increase of 27.8 percent. The 2001 rankings are also being published in the USA Triathlon bi-monthly publication USA Triathlon Times. That issue is being sent to all USA Triathlon annual members on Feb. 15.

There is a significant change that will take place in 2002 with the USA Triathlon ranking system. Effective mid March, USA Triathlon will post ongoing rankings throughout the year on its web site
(www.USATriathlon.org). The ongoing nature of the rankings will be highly reliant on race directors getting results into USA Triathlon in a timely manner. The rankings will provide to age group athletes an ongoing view as to how well they individually are stacking up with their age group peers throughout the nation. This new system is going to be a huge new component to add to the attractiveness of triathlon/duathlon for annual members as we move toward year's end.