20 July 2010

Timing is a One Man Job for the Huntly Half Marathon

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
"The time keeping at the 2010 Huntly Half Marathon was a breeze compared to other years," asserts Graham Dudfield of Hamilton City Hawks.

And he should know - Graham has been doing the timekeeping and results for the Huntly Half Marathon for the past 18 years, and there's not much he hasn't tried.

In the early days we required up to 12 people to manage the finish chute recording and co-ordination as well as three people on computers.
That makes 15 in total, not counting the people removing race numbers."

"I have used all sorts of methods: multiple chutes, manual recording of numbers, computer select timing, bar codes... I even developed my own timing system in an effort to streamline the timing process."

"The last 5 years I have used a system I developed myself which incorporated an RFID 13.56 kHz FEIG reader with Avante 6"x4" long range tags we laminated into the race number bibs.

This only had a 97-98% read rate so we had to manually scan with two hand held scanners in the finish chute to double check. These checks had to be filtered into the results - this system required six people"

Although certainly an improvement it was still a long way from where Graham wanted to take the event.

"It is hard to find volunteers now days, so we invested in an IPICO RFID timing system. This is one of the smartest things I have done," says Graham.

This year there was a record 3490 entries - including 310 late entries, with 1350 competing in the 10K and 2,100 in the Half Marathon. Graham basically managed the results by himself as a side to being the Race Director as well!
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"This year ninety-five of our club members ran in the Huntly Half Marathon. In the past, up to 15 of them would have been tied up in the finish chute"

"We had only three people to enter late entry data and this was all loaded ready for the first finisher. Late entries were taken right up to the starting gun".

The IPICO system was paired with T-7 Sportscore event management software to streamline the process, allowing competitors to enjoy a better experience with more comprehensive and accurate results information.

"We recorded start times this year, whereas in previous years we had only gun times," commented Graham.

"I find the IPICO system very straightforward to use", assures Graham. "My brother in law set up the IPICO Lite system at the 10K point on the Half Marathon. I gave him a 10 minute lesson on how to set the mats up and download the data to the USB stick when the last person crossed the mat. After that he packed it up and had the USB stick to me to load into the results!"

"Simplicity is the key to the success of operating a timing system for Clubs," explains Michael Lynch, General Manager of Times-7 Sport. "Graham is a shining example of how to implement the IPICO electronic timing system into a well-established organisation and not only improve the competitive experience but also reduce the work load of members."

"All in all we were very pleased with the IPICO system - it all worked perfectly," summarises Graham. "As I said before, it is a great investment for the club."

 Contact:

Theresa Cabot, Sales and Marketing Manager

theresa.cabot@times-7.com

 +64 6 878 5310

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.