17 January 2010

Tough Day at the Office

Tailwind Promotions in conjunction with Swimming New Zealand hosted the New Zealand Open Water Championships in Taupo today. It was a tough day at the office for everyone with bitterly cold conditions testing the fortitude of athletes, officials and spectators alike.

Tailwind designed an innovative finish line in the water using their Ipico system. They hung a timing mat between two poles set in the water near the edge. The athletes wore a timing tag on each wrist and as they crossed the finish line the system picked them up. Peter Creagh of Tailwind Promotions said "We needed to come up with a solution for this event for Swimming New Zealand and the outcome was great. We were able to get accurate reads even out in the water and everyone was happy. Mind you, for a Queensland boy it was pretty cold!"

Queensland-based Kiwi Cara Baker gained the plaudits of national coach Philip Rush after taking out the main event for the women. The former Manawatu swimmer took advantage of the late withdrawal of North Shore's Alannah Jury, who was hospitalised yesterday with a stomach virus, swimming powerfully in the cold and choppy conditions to take out the 10km title. Fellow Gold Coast swimmer George O'Brien claimed the men's title after a tight battle with Kiwis Casey Glover (Wellington), Philip Ryan (Waterhole, Auckland) and Kane Radford (Rotorua).

Freshening southerly winds to 15 knots chopped up conditions on Lake Taupo for the four-lap 10km championship with Baker in a group of seven male swimmers at the front of the field for the first two laps. Gradually swimmers dropped off, leaving O'Brien, Glover, Ryan and Radford together over the final lap, with the Australian making his move 500m from the finish. "I did not want to leave it to a sprint so I went for it," O'Brien said. "It was so cold out there. I've never swum in conditions that cold. I managed to get the gap and hold on for the win. It's great to come over here and to beat the Kiwis."

"This is a great timing solution for open water finishes and a couple of our customers have created something similar," said Times-7 Sport General Manager Peter Armson, who added "the versatility of our equipment is exceptional and we always work with our customers to enhance their offer."

For more detail on Tailwind Promotions and their events, go to:

www.tailwindpromotions.com.au

Contact:

Peter Armson, General Manager Sales

peter.armson@times-7.com

+61 401 992 683

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.