How do they know the finish time?

daymobrew

At the end of non-chip races are people feverishly nothing down the race numbers of finishers. As they don't record the finish time, how do they have a time to put in the published race results? (and, in my experience, the time is quite accurate).

meathcountysec

daymobrew wrote: »

At the end of non-chip races are people feverishly nothing down the race numbers of finishers. As they don't record the finish time, how do they have a time to put in the published race results? (and, in my experience, the time is quite accurate).

At the end of our race we have separate recorders for Place/Race No. and Place/Finish Time

BeepBeep67

In my experience.
You should also notice someone else (usually 2 or 3) feverishly banging away on a stopwatch and counting places, every 20 or so places they will also note the number of the athlete and this is then matched to the number order. Not 100% accurate, but with the check point every 20 or so places you always get back on track.

RoyMcC

meathcountysec wrote: »

At the end of our race we have separate recorders for Place/Race No. and Place/Finish Time

Yep, and match both sets of records up at the end. Who needs chips? At my old club the faithful timekeepers and recorders would have been mortified to have been done away with by the chip.

That said, my very last organised race was a disaster (in that regard). The race number company sent me the wrong type and the heavy rain virtually destroyed them. Even after a week or two we only had a pretty ropy set of results

daymobrew

RoyMcC wrote: »

That said, my very last organised race was a disaster (in that regard). The race number company sent me the wrong type and the heavy rain virtually destroyed them. Even after a week or two we only had a pretty ropy set of results

I remember one event (Dublin Simon Fun Run in 2007 IIRC) where the results sheets were on A4 boards with 'hoods' to protect from the rain.

BeepBeep67 wrote:

You should also notice someone else (usually 2 or 3) feverishly banging away on a stopwatch and counting places, every 20 or so places they will also note the number of the athlete and this is then matched to the number order.

I often thought that a video camera could be used (with the finish clock in view) and this used later.

BeepBeep67

daymobrew wrote: »

I often thought that a video camera could be used (with the finish clock in view) and this used later.

Nice, but at least half of the races I run have no finishing clock.

gmurran

BeepBeep67 wrote: »

Nice, but at least half of the races I run have no finishing clock.

Use the clock on the video camera. You can display it on screen.

meathcountysec

daymobrew wrote: »

I remember one event (Dublin Simon Fun Run in 2007 IIRC) where the results sheets were on A4 boards with 'hoods' to protect from the rain.

I think Roy is referring to the athlete's race numbers disappearing into a wet mushy quagmire:eek:

daymobrew wrote: »

I often thought that a video camera could be used (with the finish clock in view) and this used later.

Maybe a time-delayed video capture (likened to Sky+ where you can pause live TV in order to tell the election candidates at your door to "p*ss *ff and leave you in peace to watch Coronation Street") so that it can be stopped and started at will, while still capturing in real-time. Some cctv programs operate in this way and can be coupled with a cheap webcam. If you wait till after the race is finished then you are doubling the minimum time to get results out i.e time to record race + time to replay race.

RacoonQueen

At the James' fun run we recorded top 3 names, places and times. The timing company were able to produce times as well though so I assume there was some sort of sensor on the finish line the clicked when people passed over it. Think it was matched up with photos after that.

mrak

looking after a finish line is not for the faint hearted.. stressful job on bigger races.

without chips doing it right takes a minimum of 4 people. One person right at the finish line has a special stopwatch with a big memory and/or a printer built in - most everyone uses a seiko. They punch the "lap" button each time someone crosses the finish line to get a nice ordered printout.

After you cross the finish line you are directed into a chute where you will see two people - one holding a clipboard and the other calling out the numbers to them. You also have a "gopher" who goes over and back between the person punching the times and the person recording the numbers to make sure that they have recorded the same number of people. If there is a discrepency, the "gopher" tracks a particular runner down the chute to the number taker and tells the number taker to note that this runner is time number 123 or whatever. This will help aligning the results afterwards.

Another essential is to have someone recording the finish on a camcorder - it can be a lifesaver as you can get the numbers off that (and even times if the watch breaks as happened to me once).