Individual events can, and often do, define various categories according to age. Many events give age group awards in 5-year or 10-year brackets. For distance running, I know USATF officially defines it as 40 and above, with no further age-group distinction. That is, everybody 40+ is a "Master". So you have to be 40+ to set a sanctioned Masters record, for instance. They recognize age-group records separately. I have seen some track events that start masters at 35, and I wasn't sure if that was official or not.
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