25 April 2010

An Amazing Day at the 2010 Virgin London Marathon

"We've had an amazing day" said Virgin London Marathon Race Director Dave Bedford describing the this years 30th London Marathon, which is considered as one of the top five international marathons along with Chicago, Boston, New York and Berlin.

 

This year boasted a record number of 36,549 competitors crossing the finish line after Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group set them on their way. Another record number, 37,527, had registered to run by close of play on Saturday from more than 51,000 accepted applicants.
It was an event punctuated with firsts with the Etheopian Tsegaye Kebede leading them home at the end of 26.2 miles, becoming the first non-Kenyan to win the men's race since his compatriot Gezahegne Abera triumphed in 1993. Last year's runner-up, Kebede turned silver to gold as he crossed the line in 2:05:19, with the IPICO system capturing the winning time just 9 seconds outside the course record and the third fastest ever since the London Marathon started in 1981.
IPICO Sports Timing system is the exclusive Official Supplier of RFID Data Collection Technology for The Virgin London Marathon and all other London Marathon Ltd events. IPICO's unique Dual Frequency RFID technology performs in the harsh and challenging environmental conditions typically found in active sports events like the London Marathon.
Liliya Shobukhova became the first Russian to win the elite women's race as she produced a commanding performance to smash her personal best by more than two minutes in 2:22:00. Inga Abitova made it great day for Russia when she was second in 2:22:19 with Aselefech Mergia of Ethiopia third in 2:22:38, both also inside their previous lifetime bests.
Many turned out in fancy dress and many thousands more ran to raise money for hundreds of charities. There was one Royal winner, in Princess Beatrice, who crossed the line in 5:13:03 as part of a 34-person human caterpillar, claiming a Guinness World Record for the most linked runners to run a marathon.
Among the masses of personal triumphs on a day of changing weather conditions were a record 18 Guinness World Record breakers, including the tallest giraffe at 5:55:11; the fastest baby, the actor Tony Audenshaw, in 3:13:30; and the fastest TV character (a dalek) in 4:01:40.
It is crucial to the success of the day that every competitor from the elite athletes to fancy dress fun runners receives their times promptly and accurately.
Virgin London Marathon Race Director David Bedford said "After thoroughly testing the IPICO Sports system under our extremely rigorous and demanding standards, we recognized the superiority of their RFID Data Collection Technology". And they weren't disappointed.

About Times-7 Sport
Times-7 Sport provides sports timing solutions using the most advanced sports information technologies available in the world. Times-7 Sport is the Australian distributor of IPICO Sports and Times-7 sports timing products, including Sportscore, a state of- the-art event management software solution. Our systems make event timing easy, providing accurate and reliable results every time.