Race Organiser's Handbook
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BCU Taster System
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Timing Notes by Chris Bolton

Pleae note that user manuals for the Microgate electronic timing equipment used at many races are available in Documents and Downloads

Some comments on the timing of WWR..

The yearbook (15.23-3) gives allowable timing accuracy. This is because taking times to better than the nearest second, with manual start and finish, only introduces an appearance of accuracy. It is quite possible for one paddler to appear 0.1 sec faster, when in fact it was just the finisher being 0.2 sec quicker in pressing the button, and the real time was 0.1 slower. The conventional way to do this has been to ignore all the digits which are not taken account of, rather than to round up and down. This leads to fewer errors when working things out in cold and wet conditions.

With a manual start, the starter should give the signal as close as possible to the nominal time (exactly on the minute) and this nominal time should be taken as the start. It may appear more accurate for the starter to press a button when saying "Go", but in fact this tests the starter's reactions more than the paddler's speed. Some people may find it easier to give the countdown with a sweep second hand than from a digital readout. In this case, both clocks must be syncronised, and remain syncronised. Mechanical (sweep hand) stopwatches can run quite badly out out of sync over only a short time - worrying when they might be the main timing means for some races.

Bib numbers should match the start time in minutes past the hour, if possible. This make it much easier to cope with gaps in the start order where a competitor withdraws from the race, etc.

If a beeping clock is used for start, this takes out one human error (when to say "go") but it is important that the paddler knows which beep to start on, and whether the start or end of the beep is the time. The starter needs to be vigilant to ensure that no paddler starts before the recognised time. Experience with a beam about 6m after a beep start shows that there can be two seconds difference in time to the beam, some of which is due to paddlers starting to paddle at different times; not just acceleration.

More sophisticated timing methods have more scope for error. Any results issued at the event should be stated as provisional, and full checks should be made, using beam times if available, on the times of all prizewinners and anyone else within say 2 seconds of a prizewinner.

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