Grand Prix
The Grand Prix is a club competition that allows members to compete against people of similar ability throughout the year.
grand prix scoring system
The Grand Prix is a competition run over the calendar year to allow club members to compete against people of similar ability. It consists of a number of leagues, currently 6, with promotion and adjustment at the end of the year. The basics of the scoring system are simple but there are other considerations to tighten up the operation of the leagues that add to the complexity.
Any running event in which 5 or more club members compete is deemed to be a Grand Prix event. 100 points are awarded to the first member to finish, 99 to the second down to 1 for finishing hundredth or later. A bonus point is award for each person from a higher league that you beat. Events are split into 5 categories according to distance. A person’s league score will be determined by totaling the best 5 event scores with a maximum of 3 events from any one category to be included.
That basically is it! You may choose to read no further – but as with all simple things, it is necessary to specify other guidelines to clarify situations that may occur.
GP points are only awarded on completion of the event and requires that your result is reported for inclusion in the weekly email within 2 weeks of the event.
If an event is split into a number of individual races, over the same course and distance on the same day, GP places and hence points will be awarded on the basis of time
Runners competing in relay events or running in walking events such as LDWA will not qualify for GP points
If an event is Chip-Timed, GP places will be determined on the basis of the chip times. Gun time will only be used to discriminate between members with the same chip time
2nd claim members will be included in GP events but if they compete for their 1st claim club they will be awarded non-scoring points. Anyone running under another persons name will also be considered to be non-scoring
Anyone scoring excessive bonus points in an event will be elevated ('Bumped up') to the league above, as they are obviously in the wrong league, and bonus points reassigned
Anyone conceding excessive bonus points in an event may be relegated ('Bumped down') to the league below, as they are probably in the wrong league for their ability, and bonus points reassigned. Consideration will be given for one-off poor performances due to injury or running for charity
'Bumping up or down' will not be carried out during the last 2 months of the GP year. During this period a maximum of 9 bonus points per event will be imposed.
New or returning members will be assigned to a league based on their performance relative to other GP members using the ‘bumping up’ procedure to help determine a suitable level.
Junior members will be included in the GP leagues when they compete in Senior events but will only become eligible on 1st January of the year of their 15th birthday
Events that include elements other than running or take place over distances greater than a marathon will not be included in the GP
Off road events such as the Grizzly and Orion XC will be categorised according to their distance
GP events will be divided into 5 categories:
Events under 5 miles
Events between 5 miles and 10 kilometres inclusive
Events up to and including half marathon
Events over half marathon
Cross country events
If a satisfactory resolution of a league is not possible, due to all involved scoring the same number of points, then additional bonus points will be awarded to the tied runners for each head to head event they run in according to their position within the tie. So if 3 people tied and all run in an event the 1st will get an extra 9 bonus points, the 2nd 6 point and the 3rd 3; if only 2 run then the 1st will get 4 extra and the 2nd 2ents such as the Grizzly and Orion XC will be categorised according to their distance
Members will not be eligible to win a GP league until they have completed 2 GP events
At the end of the year, awards will be made and the leagues reorganised as follows:
League winners will be promoted to the league above
Points will be awarded to members who may have competed in GP events before they joined the club with the possible creation of new GP events and non-scoring points are reassigned
Members who have not recorded any results during the previous year will be removed but will be reinstated when they next complete a GP event
Members scoring zero points will be moved to the bottom of league below the one they currently occupy and adjustments will be made based upon the number of ‘bump down’ points conceded during the year
The remaining members will be listed in order. New, evenly sized, leagues will then allocated for the coming year. Ideally these leagues should consist of about 24 members to allow space for them grow as new members join in
