Registration and race entry is now open for our 2024 Grand Prix series. There are a few changes from last year, so please take a moment to read the information below which covers:
- More races to choose from, fewer to count for the series.
- Chip timing! No more sign ins!
- New pricing: £10 for your first race, £6.75 for subsequent races (or £6 if you enter when registering for the series).
More races, fewer to count
Thanks to our host clubs, we’ll have more races this year, at least 9 and probably 10. See our Grand Prix page for our full fixture list.
However, fewer races will count for the series: in a 10-race series, your best 6 scores will count; in a 9-race series your best 5 scores will count.
We hope this extra flexibility will make it easier for more people to complete the series, and give us even sharper competition.
Chip timing!
We’re partnering with EvenSplits to introduce chip timing to speed things up on race day.
You’ll be issued with a number with a timing chip on it at your first race; please look after it, as damaged timing chips occasionally aren’t read by timing mats, and there’s a cost to replace them.
One benefit of this will be that in most cases we’ll use a timing mat at the start to tell us who’s gone out onto the course, so once you’ve got your race number for the series there’ll be no need to sign in before the race.
It will also mean we can get prize-givings underway even more promptly once the race is finished.
Results will still be based on ‘gun time’, so if you sprint past someone at the finish you’ll still know that you’ve beaten them, but using chip timing will make events run more smoothly for everyone involved.
New pricing
The move to professional chip timing, along with increases to other costs like first aid cover, does mean that for the first time in many years we’ve had to review our race entry fees.
We’ll now charge £10 for your first race, which includes a registration charge to cover your race number with timing chip, and £6.75 for subsequent races. When you register for the series, you’ll be able to pre-enter any races in the series at a discounted rate of £6 each.
We still think this is exceptional value, especially when compared to other races, and hope you’ll agree.
We’re a volunteer organisation, and if there is any money left over once we’ve covered our costs it all stays in the sport, going to supporting our host clubs or back into our events.
For full details of our 2024 Grand Prix series, including how the scoring works, see our Grand Prix page. For registration and race entry, see below.
Series Registration
Series registration is open to anyone who’s 33 or over, affiliated to England Athletics, and either a member of a YVAA-affiliated club or individually affiliated to the YVAA. A list of YVAA-affiliated clubs is available on our Membership page, along with details of how to affiliate if you still need to.
Please only register for the series once! If you’re not sure whether you’ve already registered, check the registered athletes list.
Race Entry
Once you’ve registered for the series, you will still need to enter each race that you’d like to run. Entry is £6.75 per race online in advance, or £6 if you pre-enter when you register. There’s no entry on the day, unless you have a race entry voucher you’ve won at a previous race. In that case, you can present your voucher at the timing desk before the race for free entry, but you do need to register for the series online first.
At your first race, you will be issued with a race number to use for the whole race series. Please look after it between races, as damaged timing chips occasionally aren’t read by timing mats, and there’s a cost to replace them.
When we open entries for races, links to entry forms and entry lists will appear here, and in the website navigation menu.
Refund/Transfer Policy
We occasionally get enquiries about refunding entry/changing entry to another event/swapping entry to another person when a runner finds they are no longer able to take part in an event. We don’t offer this service for our Grand Prix races.
YVAA has consistently kept both its affiliation cost and entry to GP races at an absolute minimum to allow us to cover costs. If there is any money left over once we’ve covered our costs, it all stays in the sport, going to supporting our host clubs through a £1 donation per runner and paying for Grand Prix series prizes, trophies for our championships, and subsidising the odd loss-making event.
All YVAA officers are volunteers who do all the work to keep the organisation running in their own time. To spare them the extra work involved, we therefore do not operate a refund/change of entry system.