Asics Reading Half (April) - Chip Timing

Apologies if this has been covered anywhere else but other Reading thread is very big and i am not looking through all them pages.

I was wondering about the point of Chip timing when it does not actualy use your chip time for the offical race? Reading explains that all times start from the'Gun' and end when you cross the line - the offical time - therfore if your late over the line the extra minutes (or whatever)are still counted. I thought the whole point of chip timing was to take away this problem? It says that the chip time is for your own personal use only.I am missing something here or does this kind of miss the point?

GRIM (last December) was like this too and the Chip used then ( and it seems in Reading too) makes it easier to count people in but does not give a true time ( as in FLM for example)

can someone explain?????? many thanks in advance.

Comments

  • thanks for your reply - hoeverI am still not getting it though? I would have thought that for the front runners it didnt make a difference as they would go over the line fairly much straight away and therefore their overall placing would be accurate?

    i realise that you get your own chip time and i guess thats whats importanct but when i first heard of Chip timing i just presumed its purpose was to give acurate results based on what people had actually run and to stop people loosing vital minutes waiting to cross the line.
    If the technology is there and we seem to be paying for it with ever incresing fee's then why not just use it?
  • Maybe i did not mention - but i got this and then got confused from the Reading offical results 2005 - my issue is that the 'Offical results' use the old fashioned from the gun till you cross the line - therefore someone who starts 5 minutes after the front runners (due to lots of people) could run a 1.20 marathon but still have an offical time of 1.25 (as chip time is for personal use only)

  • Hmj. Basically the race is from when the gun goes until you cross the finish line and therefore officially that is your time. Obviously in a mass participation race you will not cross the line straight away and the chip will give you your time. I agree in London they go the whole hog and give you your chip time but then they have a lot more resources etc.

    In a championship race, the first person across the line is a winner in the gun to line time. So if in the national cross country a person standing three deep back at the start finishes on the shoulder of the winner then he is still second, even though in chip times he may have run slightly faster.
  • Some races give you both times. (4 Villages for one).

  • Thank you - it does make sense i think my problem is that i always thought Chip timing was invented to alleviate this problem - although it does make sense that what you said about the cross country example. I presumed that always the fastest people would get to the front ( especially with these more high profile races ) and start fairly much on the line. BUT i can now see potential problems with the use of Chip time now. I was looking at it from the mass field perspective ( due to not ever starting on the line or indeed anywhere near!) i think in the results from last year someone had run a 1.37 (ish) time yet due to starting towards the back got an offical time 6 or 7 minutes slower (and therfore ending place in relation to rest of the field)

    thanks EP and BtB for helping to deconfuse me......
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