On Sunday, I did the Cleveland Triathlon. I finished a fraction of a second ahead of another woman. When I went to the results to find out exactly how close the finish had been, I couldn’t find her number. When I took a closer look at the photo my husband had taken just before the finish line, I noticed she’d put her timing chip around her wrist. I think this may have been her first race, so she might not have known where to put the chip. (I don’t know her.)
Here’s my quandary: The race website advises people with questions about the results to contact the timing company. Would it be appropriate for me to forward photographic evidence (the photo and a link to the finish line video) of her finish time to the timing company, or should I just assume that she got disqualified for not having her chip in the correct place?
I’d send it along–can’t hurt. It would suck if she trained hard to complete her first tri & then didn’t officially finish. Can you see her race # in the pic? If so, the race folks should know when she started & when she finished. I’m sure she’d appreciate it if it it helps her get an official time (and good karma for you for being so considerate
I don’t think it would hurt to passd along the info, but its not likely it will change the outcome. Were there other timing mats at any points along the course? If she didn’t register a time at any of the points they can’t verify she followed the course correctly. This may just be a lesson learned for her next race.
Update: I forwarded the information to the timing company. They were going to insert her finish time, but they didn’t have a name attached to her number. If she comes forward and asks them about her results, she’ll be in the official results. Otherwise, she won’t.
We own Sportstats, the timing company that provides all the timing for Ironman events in North America and about 240 events in Canada.
Since the chip has been around for so long, chip on wrist for us means NO time. Announcers are usually pretty clear on this and the simple fact that
you look around you and everyone else has their chip on their ankle.
First of all she would not have registered unless she was crawling at the finish line. ChampioChip antennas will read to about 24 inches off the ground depending on the surface
the timing mats are laid out.
We have seen close calls for timing chips at a finish line were 2 athletes come together, there is 1/10th of a second difference between the 2 legs so sometimes someone could be 3 inches behind you
and detect ahead of you because the chip is on the leg crossing first but this is very rare.
There are no ties in triathlon usually, ChampioChip will time to 1/20th of a second so 1:53:34.85 will be 1:53:34.9 on the results. For Ironman all the times are rounded to the next second.
Marc, how do you handle people who lose their chips during the race? Do you usually have new chips available at T1 and/or T2? Do you have a backup system in place at the finish line?
For IM events we do have extra chips at Swim exit, bike start and run start so we very rarely see Participants not having a chip at the finish line.
Most chips now are lost in transition either getting stuck to the wetsuit or from the Bike to run transition.
For our events series we provide everyone with a new style of neoprene straps and its very rare that they are lost. We still put the responsability to the athlete to let us know if they lost
the chip in order to get a time.
We do however for IM events have backup recording at the run start and finish.
Perhaps she is like a gal in Katy and my club who never wants her results listed where people can look them up so she always removes her chip from her ankle when she races.
Perhaps she is like a gal in Katy and my club who never wants her results listed where people can look them up so she always removes her chip from her ankle when she races.
My chip came off in the swim in IMLP and I didn’t even know it. Right as I started running to T1 someone grabbed me and pulled me aside. They noticed it before I did! The whole thing took about 2 minutes to straighten out. Next time I will put a small piece of duct tape on the strap to be sure it doesn’t come off.
