Monthly Archives: March 2012

Qatar National Sports Day Fun Run

When the Government of Qatar announced that the second Tuesday of February was National Sports Day, the region truly began to embrace its sporting culture.

The national sports facility of Qatar, The Aspire Zone Foundation organised a 4km fun run at the Khalifa Stadium to mark the occasion. RFID Timing’s HDD system was used to time the event as part of a partnership between the Aspire Zone Foundation and StuWeb Race Timing.

The event was unique being completely free and attracting a diverse range of participants.  A truly multicultural event; the entries were received  in many different languages and the runners ranged from Qatar’s cleaners to chief executives.

The high level of community support made  first National Sports Day event a great success, fueling the desire for more events.  The next  race planned by the Aspire Zone Foundation is a tower run in the famous Torch Hotel ascending  51 floors on the 31st March 2012.

Tobacco Road Marathon NC, USA

The running of the Tobacco Road Marathon in North Carolina on Sunday 18th March was a great success for organisers and athletes alike.

FS Series timed the event using ULTRA and were absolutely “over the moon” with the performance of their RFID Race Timing  system. Jason Biggs with FS Series reported that they used Short Dipole tags with the Ultra.

“Worked like a Charm! We double tagged and it’s probably the best timing race we have done.”

Andrew Peterson from RFID Race Timing was not surprised. “I think the UPM short dipoles (M4) are superior to the Aliens so perhaps this explains better results. Some initial reports also say that the latest Viper M4 from UPM is even better.”  Word has it that the Viper M4 is hard to get, however initial results from some timers in Europe are fantastic.

RFID is committed to researching new tags as they become available to the market. As soon as we get our hands on these tags we will compare their performance against the current tags available.

2012 Annual Cape Argus Pick and Pay Cycle Race

The 35^th annual Cape Argus Pick and Pay was held on the Sunday 11^th March with over 35,000 cyclists taking to the road. The conditions were perfect with the feared south easterly wind that has taken its toll in the past absent this year.

Competition was hot in the elite category with a number of crashes resulting from the intense racing. Incidents marred both the male and female results with the eventual winners Janse van Rensburg and Moolman Pasio.

This iconic event with its origins dating back to 1978 and just a few hundred riders has become the largest individually timed cycle event in the world.

For a number of years now this event has been timed by Racetec SA with RFID Race Timing’s HDD timing system. The reliability of this timing system combined with low profile mats makes it a perfect option for a cycling event of this magnitude.

To see more of this iconic race visit www.cycletour.co.za

River Kwai (Thailand) Adventure Race

One of our newest members of the RFID Race Timing network: Active Management Asia has run the 2012 River Kwai Adventure Race with great success.

Two person teams competed on a demanding course that included biking, jungle running, kayaking and river swimming with some surprise obstacles along the course.

The race started at the Bridge on the River Kwai, which was made famous by the POW’s under Japanese control in WW2, and featured in a movie of the same name. The terrain included a variety of scenery from the jungles to rice paddy fields with likely challenges from snakes, spiders, mosquitoes and even stray dogs.

The ULTRA timing system was easily up for the challenge. Using both 4 and 8 port systems the team at Active Management Asia were at ease capturing the split and final times. RFID Managing Director Andrew Peterson made the trip to Thailand to help out with staff training and fine tuning for the race. For more photos of this event click here.

OCBC Cycle Singapore 2012

Fast becoming one of the most popular sports events in Singapore, OCBC Cycle Singapore 2012 was run on the first weekend in March attracting more than 11,000 participants over the 3 days. The cycling fiesta is a combination of  pro events and a range of distance challenges that engage Singapore’s cycling community.

Race timing was contracted to Blue Chip Timing who timed the mass participation events using the ULTRA8 (RFID’s UHF timing system). Based on the success of this system at OCBC Malaysia late last year, Blue Chip employed a combination of the low profile ULTRA mats that are rapidly gaining popularity for cycling events, and the side read antennas to capture start and finish times.

Read more about this event at ocbc.cyclesingapore.com.sg