pinoyathletics.com

Hand Timing or Stopwatch Timing

Article by Pirie Enzo, with contributions from National 100 and 200m Record Holder Ralph Waldy

Before i continue i would like to refer to a previous article i wrote which differentiates Hand timing and Electronic Timing.

article below
.

i would like to see a clearer video. Ironically the stupid news writing blocks the view of the last frame of the crossing the line hence ruining the quality of the news video. I can tell due to the closeness of 1 and 2 there is no way that is a .2 difference of 11.1 and 11.3 .2 is around one or two strides.

To be honest the times in the final of the Palaro were a lot slower than the semi finals. Several coaches hand timed the top two athletes at around 10.8 and 10.9. Which begs into question the accuracy of the hand timing of the officials at the Palaro and whether we can really count these performances as certifiable by the IAAF.

Not trying to take anything away from the accomplishments of the athletes as winning a Palaro title (National High school) is still a big achievement for a young athlete. However there may have been cases where an athlete is robbed of a place or an accurate time. I’m not saying that this is an example of this as i need to see a clearer video than the one provided.

I cant make an accurate decision on if Nor actually won without seeing a better video. But what I do know is a lot of countries use electronic timing at HS and even at weekly meets. Its much fairer for the athletes if they have a photo finish in place.

.

We need to introduce Electronic timing and Photo Finish to the Palaro and other meets

That is why hand timing should never be really acknowledged. I mean, we are year 2013 already. Everything is on the technology age – why is it that a national HS competition still uses hand timing instead of electronic timing? Budget issues? Very shallow answer. Someone who’s in authority should lobby that to PSC and PATAFA should strongly push for this too.

Deped is in charge of the palaro not PATAFA or PSC anymore. Deped undoubtedly has the funds to hire an electronic system. I looked into the cost of electronics purchasing the equipment is atleast 60,000 USD. DEPED does have the budget to allocate towards hiring electronics. They just do not understand the importance as they are not as well informed as the PSC or PATAFA on sports.

Electronic Timing system is cheaper than that actually. I have a quotation from finish line coz were supposed to purchase that to support PATAFA events. If PATAFA can commit to us to convince other meets to use the system for at least 20 meets in a year then we can probably reconsider that previous plan. This should be a partnership with PATAFA project.