When was it introduce to the 100 meter dash? I recall in Charlie’s book Speed Trap him mentioning how many were unable to grasp the effect it had on sprint times resulting in the perception that athletes were not up to snuff with the guys from so called “yesterday” I’m sitting here arguing with my uncle (age 70) who thinks a “Good Hand Timer” is just as good as a machine. (Think: Deep South Louisiana accent) “You time it off the smoke from the gun… and you’re right there at the finish line!” Oh, he’s not done. “You see, you hold the watch out in front of your face. That way you can see when the guy crosses the line” And this is coming from a man who refers to the PC as “a Machine” The man is instant comedy.
Actually hand timing is pretty accurate if you really concentrate. It’s when people don’t care to pay attention that you clock 11.0 runners at 10.4. FAT isn’t that accurate when you have aussie’s running 10.45 one week an 9.95 the next. Or when gatlin runs a WR in Doha but it’s really not the WR because the great machine wasn’t set right. It’s also not accurate when it doesn’t work at all…“oh we didn’t get the time, we’ll have to do the race over…” gee thanks. Just last year happened twice for me. one to a girl around here after a sure PB 200m run and national qualifier. Also happened to one of my guys in the 60.
From the archive:
Extract from the introduction of T&F through the years 1929-1936 published in 1986(?):
“Automatic timing has its roots in the period under review, although there have been unsubstantiated reports of “electrical times” from much earlier days. In September 1892, for instance, Harry Jewett was vredited with 21.95 for 220 yards (on a course with a slight curve), while in November 1902 Minoru Fujii is said to have been timed at 10.24 for 100 meters. Very little is known, however, of the means by which such recordings were made. The first attempts to link cine-cameras with the timing equipment appeared in the 1920’s, a Dutch system being demonstrated at the 1926 IAAF congress and used (“hors concours”, as it were) to time sprints events at the 1928 Olympic Games. In 1929 the “Kirby Two-Eyed Camera” was introduced in America, and was used at the 1932 Games and the 1934 European Championships. A similar concept, the “Zielzeitkamera”, was developped in Germany for the 1936 Games. (note : most of the 1936 results are lost including Owens times…)
Although times registered by these various devices were never officially used, or even revealed to the public, much interesting material from the 1932 and 1936 Games has been re-discovered in recent years, and relevant examples are included in the following pages. Unfortunately, it is difficult to assess how comparable these times are with their modern counterparts. Some people view them with suspicion, not least because they reveal smaller discrepancies from the manual times than would normally be expected.
[…] Before rejecting the results from the Kirby and “Zieltzeit” systems, it would be appropriate to conduct a trial comparing them directly with a modern camera - assuming, of course, that any models still exist after all these years.”
Mortac8:
Regarding the south african whose time was announced as 9.95 : the start apparatus recorded a negative reaction time and the race was approx 99m long.
Regarding Doha’06 : the automatic reading was set up at rounding down (speed skating rule) instead of rounding up (IAAF rule). The photofinish has been widely published by the way.
The 2 example you gave showed human deficencies, nothing against FAT accuracy.
When it doesn’t work at all, the problem is not timing accuracy, more a electronic problem.
I know but the end result is still an incorrect result. I don’t care which specific problem occurs.
Maybe I should have been more specific. When was electronic timing “officially” used as the new standard by which all future performances would be measured… World Records? For example, was Bob Hayes’ 64 Olympic 10.0 a “converted time” or was it recorded with basically that same system we recognize in International Comp today?
Electronic timing was official for World Record from 1976.
The story for Bob Hayes electronic time is somewhere in the archives.
If you don’t care about which specific problem occurs, don’t blame the machine accuracy.
Maybe we should have machines operating the machine to eliminate error. One day I’m sure.