The Importance of Chip Timing in Triathlon Races

If you have been to a triathlon race, you always see athletes wearing tags on their ankles. But, like many people who don't know, you may wonder what triathletes wear on their ankles.

They are called chip straps, and athletes have many reasons to wear them. However, if you are a race director or it's your first time organizing a triathlon event, you will find these timing devices beyond helpful.

The official Olympic triathlon distance is 1.5K swims, 40K bike, and 10K running.

Among the most important tasks of a race director is getting the start/finish lines accurately for all participants. The most raised concern by participating athletes is timing. The fewer issues you have with timing, the greater your chances of success that a racing event will be.

Table of Contents

Understanding Chip Timing

Chip timing refers to the use of radio frequency identification technology (RFIDT) to determine where an athlete is during a triathlon race. Triathlete wears a chip tag on their ankles and not on their bibs as other athletes do because the first event is swimming, and the bib will get damaged by the water.

The timing chip for triathlon athletes is secured with a strap (mostly Velcro), and then you wear the strap on your left ankle. The reason for choosing the outside left ankle is to avoid it getting caught by your bike's drivetrain as you are cycling. Also, when running and the timing chip is on the inside ankle, your other foot might accidentally hit as you run.

Athletes for other running disciplines wear the chip tag on their bibs, and it makes sense to put the bib at the front even though some runners wear the bib at their back.

The Chip Tag Technology

The RFIDT makes event officials aware of where every athlete is during an event. It's a small piece of equipment that requires less workforce to ascertain the position of thousands of athletes in a race.

Before the RFID technology, the timing of athletes required so many officials, which often led to timing errors and loopholes for athletes to cheat. Nowadays, results come in real-time, much faster, making managing huge events like the World Triathlon competition accurate.

How Does the Timing Tag Work?

For the triathlon event, you wear the chip on the ankle. The chip carries coded information about the athlete, including name, wave start, and race number. In addition, there are scanners on the start line placed on the blue mats.

These scanners are placed at strategic points in the race. These are:

· Starting point

· Swim Finish

· Bike Start

· Bike Finish

· Run start

· Finishing point.

When the triathlete crosses each of these points, the scanners take the reading and record the time. Triathletes should always step on the blue mats at every transition area. Listen to hear a beep (which means a successful recording). Be careful not to step on the blue mat before the race starts, as the scanners will start recording.

Importance of Timing Chip for Triathlon Race?

Using chip timing means the recording starts when the athlete steps on the blue mat with scanners, not when the gun goes off. It's important because it means every athlete's time is accurate for the entire race distance.

The timing chip favours highly populated triathlon events. Before the timing tag, people starting the race far from the starting line recorded higher times which could make it difficult to determine their time.

As a race director, you want your triathlon event to have credibility. The timing chip brings credibility because it records accurately when you hit the start and cross the finish line.

Only some participants compete for glory and may participate for fun. However, most people are okay with having accurate times. And if you organize a credible and accurate event, more runners will want to join the next race, and many more will be willing to participate again.

Are There Chip Timing Drawbacks?

So far, the only setback is relative to financing the event. Buying all the timing chips for each athlete will be costly if you plan to organize a huge triathlon event.

But startup capital for every venture is costly, and you shouldn't be discouraged if it's your first time organizing such an event. The first two years will be steep, but with good marketing and a thriving high number of registered participants, you will have enough proceeds to cover chip timing costs easily.

Advantages of using chip timing:

· It makes runners aware that it's an official race and not a running for fun

· Accurate award presentation

· Make the user experience memorable

· Faster results than manually timed races

· Fewer number of officials and workforce

Understanding Gun Time Vs Chip Time

Awards and results are determined by the net chip timing, which started recording when you first stepped on the blue mats with scanners (Starting Point). But the overall winners are an exception as their times are determined when the gun goes off and not when the runner steps on the start line.

What Activates my Timing chip?

Your timing chip is automatically activated when you step on the blue mat start line with scanners. So, for example, the first event of a triathlon is the swim, and your chip time starts recording when your wave steps on the mat.

Remember that athletes can accidentally trigger the chip timing to start recording before the race when they step on the blue mat with scanners. But the presence of race officials means that you are always directed to the next step to avoid such occurrences.

Conclusion

Now you know what triathletes wear on their ankles. If you are a beginner race director, consider buying your equipment for the triathlon event. It will be affordable, especially if you plan to host multiple triathlon events within a calendar year.

But besides the timing, you will need reliable software to interpret and organize the data you receive. The job requires patience and the ability to tolerate pressure. The job of a race director has few volunteers, and the requirements are hefty.

Most race organizers prefer to contract out the job of race directors instead of using an in-house workforce.