News

Ultra used at Finland's Largest Triathlon

FinnTriathlon organised the largest and oldest triathlon in Joroinen (Finland) last weekend timed with a brand new RFID Race Timing System. The 3 day long weekend boasts short course and support events before Sunday’s long course event. When Finntriathlon did their homework on a suitable system to do their timing ‘in-house’, they came to the conclusion that Ultra was superior to the other systems out there. In the space of only 6 weeks the FinnTriathlon team were able to develop the skills to time an event of over 1200 triathletes with 8 splits and live results all day. This is testament to the ease of setup and reliability of industrial grade equipment and software that has many years of development, and international events behind it.

Winner Darby Thomas crosses the Ultra timing mats at Joroinen 2014

30,000 Runners at HBF Run for a Reason

The center of Perth is a sea of blue

20m wide finish line

Records were broken at this years HBF Run for a Reason with over 30,000 runners taking part in either the 4 or 12km runs. The event was timed by blueChip Timing in damp conditions using over 20 Ultra8 systems covering a whopping 20m on the finish line. An added feature of this years race was the ability for runners to pass through a results kiosk and their tag was automatically scanned and results  instantly displayed on LED TV screens.

Copenhagen Raises the Bar

Ultra again providing dependable technology to the worlds iconic eventsThe 2014 Nykredit Copenhagen Marathon was once again timed with Ultra Systems by our largest customer, Ultimate Timing of Denmark. There were more splits along the course and a shiny new app to download that had features that rivaled any other live timing platform in the market today. The app allowed individual runners to be tracked on the race course as if they were wearing a mobile GPS tracker. The live feed of splits were also beautifully displayed on a easy to use grid. To see for yourself download the app from iTunes or go to the NCM website. Ultimate CEO Morten Toft reported that the read rates of the tags using Ultra were almost too good to be true at pretty much 100% along the 5km split points, start and finish lines. This has reinforced their decision to invest heavily in RFID Race Timing’s technology for the coming years.

RFID Race Timing on the roof of Malaysia

RFID Race Timing Systems was used this year to time the 27th annual Mt Kinabalu Climbathon on the island of Sabah, Malaysia on October 18-19. The event was timed by RFID Race Timing Malaysia based in KL using Ultra and side antennas with the re-useable UltraTag. After 12km the runners reached Mt Kinabalu at 4095m above sea level and returned to the finish line for a total of 23km. The course is one of the toughest around with temperatures ranging from very hot and humid at the start/finish to near freezing at the summit. Almost 600 hardy trail runners competed this year and an in-depth race report with photos can be found here.

Ultra and side antenna waiting for the first runner at 4095m elevation

Turkey Trot Time

In what has become as big a tradition as eating turkey and pumpkin pie, runners came out in their tens of thousands to run in Turkey Trots all over North America as part of Thanksgiving Day on the 28th November. Over 50 races were timed with RFID Race Timing Systems Equipment (that we know of) on the same day with some events attracting up to 6000 runners. In terms of shear numbers of runners this is the biggest weekend in North America for timers due to the huge number of regional events on the Thanksgiving national holiday.

A small selection of Thanksgiving day fun runs timed with RFID Race Timing Systems equipment

Italian Cycling Comes to Miami

Whilst mass cycling events are mainstream in Europe, South Africa and Australia, they are still only developing in the USA. Italian company KronService SRL contracted Accuchip Timing to time their inaugural Gran Fondo Giro D’Italia at Coral Cables in Florida. The event had a strong Italian theme with the odd Ferrari being seen amongst the parade.

Over 1500 riders competed over one of three distances, the longest being 108 miles. The timing system used was Ultra and disposable transponders – the same setup used for Gran Fondo Giro D’Italia Beverly Hills (CA) seven days earlier. This setup is fast becoming the standard for timing and tracking mass cycling events including the 2013 Around the Bay in a Day with 16,000 bikes and the upcoming Tour Down Under with 6500 bikes.