runbritain rankings lead the way as Lord Coe searches for an algorithm to highlight the world's finest athletes

Lord Sebastian Coe has been pondering how we may know who the best athlete in the world is. We have numerous championships, across the world, including the World Championships and continental championships that highlight those performing best, at the time, but who is the most consistent over the full year? There are periodic leagues, like the Diamond League that compares performances within a five month period, but not one that also considers winter performances.

At runbritain we know, on any given day, the number one athlete for endurance running in the UK. Our unique algorithm calculates the result along with other factors including the ambient conditions on the day.

This means a hilly 10k  with a head wind may be ranked ahead of a faster time on a flatter smoother surface.

Earlier this year we noted that the sweltering London Marathon was on par with a muddy cross country run for the difficulty in performing on the day. Read the story here.

The top male and female UK endurance runners presently are

Mo Farah with a running handicap score of -7.3

Laura Muir with a running handicap score of -3.3

While these offer no great surprise, they give others the opportunity to compare themselves via their individual running handicap scores.

Upcoming endurance runners such a Jemma Reekie (handicap -1.7) and Jake Heywood (handicap -5.6) are closing in on their elders with impressive running handicap scores. 

Lord Sebastian Coe  (running handicap of 14.3) and the IAAF may soon use similar calculations to help with their dilemma. 

runbritain Handicap

The runbritain handicap scoring system is a unique way of measuring your progress and comparing yourself with other runners.

As in golf, handicaps go from scratch (zero, or even slightly negative for elite runners) to 36 with increments of 0.1.

To compute your handicap we take a combination of your recent best performances but adjusted by the "SSS" which is our measure of the course difficulty and weather conditions on the day.

This means that you can improve your handicap at any race as on harder courses you won't need to run quite as quickly as on faster ones.