47th Wolverton 5 Mile Road Race
Saturday 26 November 2011
Results
The race was held round
MMKAC
results with pictures by
Brian Graves
Thanks go to Jackson
Ryan who organised the event; to David Barratt who organised the marshals; to
Brian Graves who sorted out the entries; to Camphill Farm Trust who allowed us
to use their facilities, and to the many members and friends of Marshall Milton
Keynes AC who helped on the day.
The chip timing system used
in this year’s race had problems, unfortunately. The times given at the finish
were some 10-11 seconds faster than the manual times and ten results were
missing. Later on the Saturday evening I was emailed another set of results
with the 10 missing results included but another set of 7 results omitted.
These were 5-6 seconds different from the manual times, in a slightly different
order, and with mat-mat times that were not credible – apparently 94 runners
had crossed the mat in the first second, while only 90 runners crossed the line
in the following 12 seconds. I asked the Chip Timing Company to investigate
these anomalies as a matter of urgency.
On Thursday
1 December I was sent a third set of results which were more consistent with
the manual times (98 were the same, 99 out by 1 second, 25 out by 2 seconds,
and the other four by between 3 and 5 seconds). The mat-mat times had changed
again by varying amounts from the results sent to me on the evening of the
race. When I asked for an explanation as to why the results had changed the
response was “The issue we had was the time sync error in one timing box. That
timing box was moved from the start to the finish causing the error to be
doubled six seconds at the start and six seconds at the finish however at the
finish it was only for the people who finished on the left side. I should have
doubled the mats up to form a 5m finish rather than a 10m.”
I’m afraid
I don’t find the explanation consistent with the varying results I have seen
and I cannot vouch for either the mat-mat or gun-tape times that have been sent
in this third set of results. I have therefore abandoned the chip-timed results
and have displayed only the manual times recorded by the club’s officials at
the finish. If you wish to see what the chip times are, please click here.
We apologise for all the
problems this has caused which were beyond our control.
Mick Bromilow, Chair
Marshall Milton Keynes.
Please let Mick
Bromilow know of any errors