Age Categories for Children in Triathlon

Source: British Triathlon

There are six age classifications based on year of birth, with a separate boys and girls category for each age-group. The categorisation is straight-forward enough once explained, but the date cut-off point is different to some other sports your children may already play such as football or hockey. Eligibility for an age-group is based on year of birth, and not the August/September cut-off date which others sports and indeed schools uses for a given year group. Similarly, most categories cover a period of more than 1 year. See below for the specific age categorises. For example, if you are 8 and you become 9 at any point in 2019, you would race in the Tristar 1 category all year from January 2018 through to December 2019. You do not change categories on your birthday, rather like school everyone “moves up” an age category, where relevant, at the end of the racing year, 1st January 2020 in our case. In the example given, in 2020 this individual would continue to race in the Tristar 1 category and would “move up” to Tristar 2 in January 2021. This same rational is applied across all age groups.

These follow the definitions published by British Triathlon – see here.

Tristarts – 8 years old
Tristar1 – 9/10 years old
Tristar2 – 11/12 years old
Tristar3 – 13/14 years old
Youth – 15/16 years old (British Triathlon Category A)
Junior – 17-19 years old (British Triathlon Category B & C combined)

As an Age-Group athlete, you will compete against other Age-Group athletes within your age-band category. The age-band category that you fall into depends on your age on December 31st in the year of competition.

Example: If you are 45 on 29 December 2016 then for the whole of 2016 you will compete in the 45-49 age-group.

International age-group competition starts at age 16 for sprint distances and 18 for standard distance and long distance. For international Age-Group Championships and age-group qualification all 16-19 year olds will be grouped as one under 20 age category.

CODE CATEGORY AGE
A Youths 15-16
B Juniors 17-18 17-18
C Juniors 19 19