Technology comes to the track

With an iPad mounted on a platform, Gentry coach Daniel Ramsey video records the finish of running events during a track meet last week.
With an iPad mounted on a platform, Gentry coach Daniel Ramsey video records the finish of running events during a track meet last week.

GENTRY - New technology is not just for the classroom at Gentry schools; it's also being used in athletics and was used last week on the track for the Pioneer Relays.

Organizing a track meet and recording results is no easy task, but using a software program entitled "Meet Manager" by Hy-Tek made the job much easier. Not only does the software work for recording results, it assigns participants to events and even to heats and lanes in running events.

Then, when the events are completed, the software allows track meet managers to import times, scores, team scores and individual statistics and create reports and upload them to websites reporting results.

And, if you remember in years past seeing six or eight coaches at the end of races with stop watches recording individual times in each heat of running events, that wasn't the case at Gentry track meets last week. Instead, there was an iPad mounted at the finish line and a white background on the other side of the track, allowing race results to be timed and recorded with photo finish accuracy.

Obtaining photo-finish results used to cost in the neighborhood of six to seven thousand dollars, and many area schools have invested that kind of money to obtain accurate results in races. Gentry track coach Daniel Ramsey found another way to do the same thing and at a small fraction of the cost.

Using sprintTimer, a $1.99 application for iPhone and iPad, Gentry's track coaches were able to obtain photo-finish results for all the laned running events.

How does it work? According to Coach Ramsey, the application takes a video of the runners as they cross the finish line. When the race is complete, all he has to do is back up the video to the point each runner crosses the finish line, then the application provides him with the runner's time.

According to Apple iTunes website, "sprint-Timer is a unique timer and photo-finish app that employs the same techniques as the professional equipment used at the Olympics. Start the timer and point the camera towards the finish line, sprintTimer will build an image of narrow slices of the finish line. You can then scroll along the photo to get the time when each competitor crosses the finish line with a 0.01 (second) resolution. sprintTimer also includes a motion-controlled Lap Timer and a Video Finish tool for longer races."

According to Joni Wilson, Gentry School District's technology coordinator, Coach Ramsey tried out the app at a recent Siloam Springs track meet and, after seeing the results, was confident enough to use the new system at Gentry's meets on Thursday and Friday.

And Ramsey was pleased with the results.

"A lot of schools spend six or seven thousand dollars to purchase equipment to do what we're doing with a $1.99 app," Ramsey said. "I think those other companies are going to go out of business," he added.

According to the iTunes website, sprintTimer has a number of advantages over using a manual stop watch. Among those advantages, the site lists the following:

◊One person can time all participants;

◊Higher accuracy;

◊Easier to determine the order and time difference;

◊The image and the results can be saved;

◊Can operate "hands free"; and

◊The timer can be started by a sound (e.g. from a start gun)."

According to the Apple site, Start Sender, another application can be used to record the starting time and send it wirelessly to sprintTimer on another iOS device. This can be done via WiFi or through a cellular carrier, the site states. The timer can be started manually (by playing a shot), by sound detection, motion detection, or with a self-timer which plays a start sequence.

So, in Gentry Schools, technology is not just for the classroom. It's used on the athletic fields. And, while athletes must still prepare for competitions the old-fashioned way - through sweat and hard work - technology is playing an increasingly greater part in preparing for those events, measuring results and recording them so that coaches and athletes can focus on improving results.

Sports, Pages 9 on 04/17/2013