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Lead Stories: Friday, December 5, 2008

Chip Maker’s Timing is Worse Than Honolulu Marathon’s Timing System

Posted December 13th, 2007 at 8:59 PM by Jimmie R. Markham

Section: News & Results, Marathons

You’ve probably heard by now about the embarrassing failure of the timing system at the Honolulu Marathon this past Sunday, December 9th, 2007. According to the Honolulu Star-Bulletin:

“Hundreds – perhaps thousands – of runners [were left] without proof that they completed the grueling 26.2 miles. Others did not receive accurate finishing times … Intense rain caused an electrical short just before the start of the race. Some transponders on tags attached to competitors’ shoes rebooted correctly; others did not. And some remained dead, leading to problems at every checkpoint.”

SAI Timing and Tracking, the company that implemented the timing system at the race, blamed it on themselves and the weather. SAI owner David Simms stated that, “we didn’t have our equipment weatherproofed as well as we should have.” Even worse, there was plenty of bad timing happening elsewhere.
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