# 400m progression by age

> What a 400m time at 14, 15 or 16 projects to at 17 and 18 on the published WMA age curve, boys and girls, and the college range it lands in.

**A boys' 58.00 400m at 14 projects to 54.28 at 18; a girls' 1:06.00 400m at 14 projects to 1:01.90 at 18 on the published age curve.**

Enter your current age and your best fully automatic 400m time. The tool holds your
age-graded level constant and prints the time that level is worth at every age to 30, from
the World Masters Athletics factors the sport uses for age grading.

Enter your age and your best mark (fully automatic timing for a race), and the table shows the same level on the curve at every age up to 30.

## What a 400m time at 14 projects to

Four starting points, boys then girls, carried forward on the same curve. A freshman season is the age most families first ask the question, which is why 14 is the starting column.

### Boys

| At 14 | At 15 | At 16 | At 17 | At 18 | At 20 | The age-18 time against college standards |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **52.00** | 50.95 | 50.06 | 49.31 | 48.67 | 47.69 | Inside the published NCAA Division I recruiting range. |
| **55.00** | 53.89 | 52.95 | 52.15 | 51.48 | 50.44 | Inside the published NCAA Division III recruiting range. |
| **58.00** | 56.83 | 55.84 | 55.00 | 54.28 | 53.19 | Below the published college ranges. Plenty of athletes close that gap in a season. |
| **1:02.00** | 1:00.75 | 59.69 | 58.79 | 58.03 | 56.86 | Below the published college ranges. Plenty of athletes close that gap in a season. |

### Girls

| At 14 | At 15 | At 16 | At 17 | At 18 | At 20 | The age-18 time against college standards |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **58.00** | 56.90 | 55.95 | 55.13 | 54.40 | 53.19 | Inside the published NCAA Division I recruiting range. |
| **1:02.00** | 1:00.82 | 59.81 | 58.93 | 58.15 | 56.86 | Inside the published NCAA Division II recruiting range. |
| **1:06.00** | 1:04.75 | 1:03.67 | 1:02.73 | 1:01.90 | 1:00.53 | Below the published college ranges. Plenty of athletes close that gap in a season. |
| **1:10.00** | 1:08.67 | 1:07.53 | 1:06.53 | 1:05.65 | 1:04.20 | Below the published college ranges. Plenty of athletes close that gap in a season. |

The last column places the age-18 projection against the published college
recruiting standards for the 400m. See the full ladder for
[boys](https://trackreels.io/standards/400m/M) and [girls](https://trackreels.io/standards/400m/F).

## How the projection works

World Masters Athletics publishes an age factor for every age and event: the fraction of the
open-class standard that a world-best performer of that age reaches. Divide the open standard by
the factor and you have the age standard. Your age-graded level is your time against that
standard, and it is the one number on this page that stays fixed: the tool assumes you hold the
same level and asks what time that level is worth at each later age.

In one line: time at age B equals time at age A, times factor(A), divided by factor(B). The
factors rise through the teens and reach 1.0 in the early twenties, so times fall and then
flatten. That shape is the sport's published record of how much of the improvement between 13
and 20 is simply getting older.

## What it cannot know

It knows nothing about you. A growth spurt, a new coach, a switch from hand timing to FAT,
an injury, or a season of doing the work will all move you off the curve, up or down, and the
athletes coaches remember are exactly the ones who moved off it. Read the projection as the
finish line you are already on pace for, not as a result you have earned. Enter fully automatic
times only; a hand time is a different number, and the
[hand time to FAT converter](https://trackreels.io/convert/hand-time-to-fat) fixes that first.

## The published factors behind it

The factor for each age, and the age standard it implies (the open standard divided by the factor).

| Age | Boys factor | Boys age standard | Girls factor | Girls age standard |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 8 | 0.7291 | 59.22 | 0.7246 | 1:05.69 |
| 9 | 0.7725 | 55.90 | 0.7686 | 1:01.93 |
| 10 | 0.8095 | 53.34 | 0.8047 | 59.15 |
| 11 | 0.8416 | 51.31 | 0.8351 | 57.00 |
| 12 | 0.8695 | 49.66 | 0.8609 | 55.29 |
| 13 | 0.8940 | 48.30 | 0.8835 | 53.88 |
| 14 | 0.9156 | 47.16 | 0.9032 | 52.70 |
| 15 | 0.9344 | 46.21 | 0.9207 | 51.70 |
| 16 | 0.9511 | 45.40 | 0.9363 | 50.84 |
| 17 | 0.9656 | 44.72 | 0.9503 | 50.09 |
| 18 | 0.9783 | 44.14 | 0.9630 | 49.43 |
| 19 | 0.9890 | 43.66 | 0.9744 | 48.85 |
| 20 | 0.9984 | 43.25 | 0.9848 | 48.33 |
| 21 | 1.0000 | 43.18 | 0.9943 | 47.87 |
| 22 | 1.0000 | 43.18 | 1.0000 | 47.60 |
| 23 | 1.0000 | 43.18 | 1.0000 | 47.60 |
| 24 | 1.0000 | 43.18 | 1.0000 | 47.60 |
| 25 | 1.0000 | 43.18 | 1.0000 | 47.60 |

Factors: World Masters Athletics age-grading factors (2015 tables; youth factors 2006/2010), transcribed from [Howard Grubb's WMA age-grading calculator data](https://howardgrubb.co.uk/athletics/wmalookup15.html), retrieved 2026-09-05. Nothing on this page is estimated, smoothed or extended by this site.

## What is still not here

The 300m hurdles, a high school race with no U20 or open championship record to anchor a
curve on; the hammer and weight throws, which have no Junior Olympic division records; and the
combined events. The site would rather leave those out than invent a curve for them. The
[published college standards](https://trackreels.io/standards) cover every event the site ranks, and the
[hurdle specifications by level](https://trackreels.io/blog/hurdle-heights-and-spacing) explain what changes
with age for the hurdle races.

**A projection is a target. A profile is proof.**

Put the marks you have already made on a free TrackReels profile: every mark shows its date and, where they apply, wind and timing, you rank on the boards the day you post, and college coaches browse by event, class year and state.

[Create your free profile](https://trackreels.io/signup)

## Other events

**Running:** [100m](https://trackreels.io/progression/100m) · [200m](https://trackreels.io/progression/200m) · [800m](https://trackreels.io/progression/800m) · [1500m](https://trackreels.io/progression/1500m) · [Mile](https://trackreels.io/progression/mile) · [3200m](https://trackreels.io/progression/3200m) · [5000m](https://trackreels.io/progression/5000m)
**Jumps, throws and hurdles:** [Long Jump](https://trackreels.io/progression/long-jump) · [Triple Jump](https://trackreels.io/progression/triple-jump) · [High Jump](https://trackreels.io/progression/high-jump) · [Pole Vault](https://trackreels.io/progression/pole-vault) · [Shot Put](https://trackreels.io/progression/shot-put) · [Discus](https://trackreels.io/progression/discus) · [Javelin](https://trackreels.io/progression/javelin) · [110m Hurdles](https://trackreels.io/progression/110m-hurdles) · [100m Hurdles](https://trackreels.io/progression/100m-hurdles) · [400m Hurdles](https://trackreels.io/progression/400m-hurdles) · [All events](https://trackreels.io/progression)

## Keep reading

[### Good 400m Times by Level: Rate Your Time Published 2026 state and section qualifying 400m times from California, Oregon and Missouri, the college recruiting ranges, and how to read your own split.](https://trackreels.io/blog/what-is-a-good-400m-time)[### How to Improve Your 400m Time Why the 400 punishes pacing errors more than fitness, how to read your own split, and what a realistic in-season improvement looks like.](https://trackreels.io/blog/how-to-improve-your-400m-time)[### Hand Time vs FAT: Why a Stopwatch Reads Fast What fully automatic timing is, the exact conversion coaches apply to a hand time, and why a stopwatch PR does not travel.](https://trackreels.io/blog/hand-timing-vs-fat-explained)

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Canonical page: https://trackreels.io/progression/400m
Site guide for agents: https://trackreels.io/llms.txt