PoleVaultPower.com

for sprinting events i always see people dipping their heads or their whole torsos to have some part of their body cross the finish line before the people next to them and i was wondering:

what exactly counts as the official end time? when your foot crosses the finish line? your hips? your head? or just any other random bit of body? would a hand count if you were to just fling it out in front of you at the end and hold it? (even though that'd be a waste of momentum and energy...*

so far as i know it's chest and/or head/upper body. as in~ no, you cant reach out a hand and have it count.

okay, so if you were to have really long strides and have your foot cross the line before your body does your time wouldnt stop? It'd have to be your torso a split second later?

If its automatic timing, or FAT, the numbers you wear on your thigh and chest are clocked as you cross an invisible line. They average the two, and theres your time. As for hand time, im pretty sure its the chest crossing the line.

kool. well, in high school we aren't exactly spiffy *or rich* enough to have automatic timers like that... and I'm pretty sure our timers have just about as little knowledge as to when to hit the button at the end as do everyone in the stands besides the coaches... we've gotten some pretty funky timeing this year because of it...

vault3rb0y wrote:If its automatic timing, or FAT, the numbers you wear on your thigh and chest are clocked as you cross an invisible line. They average the two, and theres your time. As for hand time, im pretty sure its the chest crossing the line.

LOL you have never seen an actual FAT finish line run.

I was helping with it the other day at some meets we were hosting. I wasn't doing the actual finish line timing system, but as far as I know and could see, it is as the torso crosses the line, whatever part of the torso crosses first.

This might help http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/ ... iming2.htm

So it WOULD be to the runner's benefit to lean forward acrost the line. Okay.

It is the torso that they count... HOWEVER, when running, to dip your head and torso down, or turning your shoulders, to get your torso across the line, that motion breaks the running form so it will actually slow you down, ever so slightly...

So in a race when leaning would be useful, leaning too early or too late might actually slow you down, or be detrimental enough to lose at the photo finish.

Thats just what one of the officials told me when i asked him at one of the meets. He said thats why you have to wear the sticker on your thigh AND your chest, and it gives them two readings. Maybe in olympics they just use the one. Too bad you cant take it off and stick your hand out before the finish line .

vault3rb0y wrote:Thats just what one of the officials told me when i asked him at one of the meets. He said thats why you have to wear the sticker on your thigh AND your chest, and it gives them two readings. Maybe in olympics they just use the one. Too bad you cant take it off and stick your hand out before the finish line .

Yeah, he didn't do a very good job of explaining. The sticker and number don't have anything to do with it other than helping the person running the finish line camera figure out who is who.

I think you (or the official) are getting confused with road races where they have chip timing. You tie a little thing on your shoe and your time starts when you cross the start line mat and ends when you cross the finish line mat.