Bill Collins wins M50 200 — time NA
Mystery is half-solved. Bill Collins beat Ed Gonera for the M50 title at 200 yesterday in Puerto Rico — but we may never know his true winning time.
Results from WMA worlds site show:
1 Collins, Bill M52 United States NT NWI
2 Gonera, Edward M51 United States NT NWI
3 Bowen, Robert M51 United States NT NWI
3 Oliver, Viv M51 Great Britain NT NWI
— Norman, Jesse M52 United States NT
— Regales, Siegfried M50 Netherland Antilles NT
— Franklyn, Walwyn M50 Great Britain NT
— Freeman, Peter M51 Canada NT
* Timing Malfunction
Earlier, I received this note from Roger Jennings, a principal in the Flash Results timing business handling the results and timing functions in Carolina:
Sadly there was a timing malfunction at Sixto Escobar for that race. They had a major lightning storm come through which delayed the event and damaged the photofinish cameras (a replacement was put in place but wasn’t configured correctly in time for the finish). They did award medals to the top three (I’m not sure why the didn’t post the results for them yet. I was working at Clemente. Hopefully they’ll get them posted this morning.
Also a puzzle is why the local organizers didn’t provide backup hand-timers, as is the case in most major national and international meets. (Maybe the timing crew was moved out of harm’s way — but the athletes were left to depend on luck in the storm.)
It’s a crying shame that one of the biggest showdowns in the meet has gone untimed. Perhaps a world record was missed as a result.
2 Responses
It seems like they should be able to at least get some unofficial times from the many? people that were probably timing the race.
even a DV camera would help out, as NTSC at 29.97 frames per second would give you an accurate time within 0.03 seconds, as long as you record the starter’s gun and smoke/flare.
Standing at the finish line would help, too.
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