Washington State XC Timing Issues

I was an official at the Washington State Cross Country Meet in Pasco yesterday. (To be clear, I am speaking for myself and not for meet management.) I was posted on the course about 40 meters from the finish line, and what I learned about the timing issues I learned after all the races were over.

We have 11 races: the wheelchair race followed by the 10 girls and boys running races by classification.

A problem with the finish system developed later in the day. Over the last several races, the times were off, and by an increasing increment as the races went on. For example, the first was off by, say, 3 seconds, the next by 5, and so on. The biggest margin was close to 11 seconds, as the corrected Boys 4A results show.

The good news is that the problem was recognized, the race results systems people were able to determine by how much in each race, and to the best of my knowledge, all results have now been re-posted with the corrected times.

Tanner Anderson's official time is 14:31.7.

Results link for all the races:

http://wiaa.com/ardisplay.aspx?ID=1314

 

It's unfortunate that so many kids thought they had run faster than they actually had; I do understand that XC is all about the place and not the time.


Mark Cullen
Past President, Washington State Cross Country Coaches Association