National recognition for 2011 Bristol races

Bristol’s two major road races – the 2011 Bristol 10k and the 2011 Bristol half marathon have been selected by UK Athletics as key events in two prestigious new initiatives.

The 2011 Bristol 10k which will take place on Sunday 15 May, has been chosen by UK Athletics as one of five leading British road races to be included in the first ever runbritain grand prix series.

The Bristol half marathon which will take place on Sunday 11 September, has been selected as one of four UK Championship road events for 2011.

The 2011 Championship events are:

Marathon Championships – Virgin London Marathon
Age group road race Championships – Virgin Mini London Marathon
10k Championships – BUPA London 10,000
Half Marathon Championships – 2011 Bristol Half Marathon

The 2011 Grand Prix series events are:

Reading Half Marathon – March
Bristol 10k – May
Bupa London 10,000 – May
Admiral Swansea Bay 10k – September
EDF Energy Birmingham Half Marathon – October

The new Grand Prix series will link five of Britain’s leading road races for a total prize purse in excess of £55,000.

The prize fund announced for the Grand Prix series will be available for athletes eligible to compete for Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and will be awarded on a points-for-places system.

Athletes finishing in the top 250 male or female finishers in any of the series’ races will receive points with their best four performances out of five scoring opportunities counting towards the final standings.

runbritain MD, Geoff Wightman said “This is a pilot format and in future years we will aim to extend the width and depth of the runbritain grand prix series. We want to raise the standards of domestic race fields and put in the incentives and quality racing opportunities that will enable Brits to step up.

All of these are very well organised races, with PB opportunities. As well as currently backing home-grown runners, they have been strong supporters of all runbritain initiatives so far this year and have agreed to hold back places for grand prix scorers.”

More information on the series including the structure of time bonuses can be seen at www.runbritain.com/grandprix and also in (this week’s) Athletics Weekly magazine.

2011 Bristol 10k entries are now open – go to the Bristol 10k pages of this site.

Race date: Sunday 15 May 2011

2011 Bristol half marathon entries open Spring 2011

Race date: Sunday 11 September 2011