Feature Highlight: Road & XC Entries on OpenTrack
Taking entries with OpenTrack for road and cross country — access a wealth of features
We’re well into the winter season now, with carbon-plated racing flats and mud-coated inch-long spikes replacing the summer’s footwear.
Whilst you might be familiar with OpenTrack most for track and field, we’d hate to imagine that’s all we’re known for — as long as there are competitions being held, then our complete competition management system can be of use.
Taking entries is the unglamorous part of managing a competition, but we have a number of features to make life much easier for organisers.
Our comprehensive entry process and handy mass mailing open up a world of possibilities, while our versatile athlete numbering and relay management features are capable of slicing hours off of race administration.
Relay Management — Streamline your admin
For those hosting relays, our relay entry process and team declaration screens give the best of both worlds.
Tired of having to ask team managers to declare their athletes on entry, weeks or even months in advance, leading to inaccurate start lists and results?
Take relay entries on OpenTrack, and team managers can simply pay for a set number of teams.
Shortly before your competition, simply open our easy-to-use team declarations, and team managers can declare their runners from a list of eligible athletes.
Mass Mailing — Get in touch with your competitors
When taking entries with OpenTrack, our mass mailing features come into their own.
Whether you’re looking for competitors to check in online before they race, chasing up athletes with unfinished entries, or simply sending out course maps and race day info, delivering vital details to your athletes has never been easier.
Entry Journey — Make it your own
OpenTrack’s flexible entry journey means you can set things up exactly as you’d like, making things as simple as possible for your athletes, whilst still getting all the information you need to run a smooth competition.
Chargeable Extras
Selling race t-shirts, or offering additional merchandise? Set up any number of chargeable extras for your competitors to add to their entry.
Discount Codes
Looking to entice athletes who raced last year? Offer a discount code and tempt them in with a reduced entry fee.
Early Bird Pricing
If you need to incentivise your competitors to get their entries in sooner rather than later, our early bird pricing setup can automatically manage price increases.
Information Capture
If you need competitors’ addresses to send out race numbers, or their emergency contact information in the unlikely event something goes wrong on the day, our built-in forms easily capture the necessary information.
Athlete Numbering — Getting everyone on the same page
When it comes time to assign athletes with the numbers they’ll be wearing on race day, our infinitely versatile numbering process can cut admin time to almost zero — no more headaches fighting with spreadsheets!
Our numbering screen allows you to sort competitors by up to five criteria, select the precise range of numbers to be used, and restrict the athletes being numbered to those with specific events, clubs, categories, or age groups.
Making the most of numbering with OpenTrack
With a searchable, publicly available competitor list, it’s easy for competitors to know their bib in advance, or to be found by officials — no more long lines at registration!
Even better, spectators have a guide to those racing in the palm of their hand, with our club flags making it even easier to follow the action.
With all manner of configurable and preformatted downloads, working with external providers is simple.
Sending comprehensive athlete details to number printers, chip timing providers, or live stream broadcasters, is as simple as downloading the information in your chosen format.
If athletes are numbered in OpenTrack, making use of our results features is easy wherever they come from — a scrawled piece of paper at the finish line, or the latest chip timing software!
Event Listing — Let everyone know
Perhaps the simplest benefit of all is simply the visibility afforded to competitions on OpenTrack.
With nearly 1,000 daily unique visitors to our competition listing page this year, hosting your entries on OpenTrack is a sure-fire way to get your competition in front of as many eyes as possible — whether you’re taking entries with us or not, listing your event is free for all!
We hope this has been a good primer on using OpenTrack for road and cross country entries — keep an eye out in the coming weeks, as we cover the other side of the coin — results!
As always, if you have any feedback, requests, or want help bringing your athletics into the 21st century, feel free to get in touch at info@opentrack.run.