For a cross country race, the exact time is often irrelevant. The course is different every year and if it is not, the weather conditions are so different that it is impossible to compare times from one year to the next. The order in which the athletes cross the finish line, on the other hand, is important. With the Athletics.app Jury App, you can easily arrange this. Without the need for an expensive system. The Vlaamse Atletiekliga (Flemish Athletics League) has made a handy introductory video, which you can watch here:
How does the timing work in cross competitions?
You hand out Bib numbers to competitors that have a QR code on them.
As soon as the starting gun goes off, click on "Register starting gun" in the jury app.
The time / stopwatch will now start running.
As soon as an athlete crosses the finish line, scan the QR code and the finish order + personal time for that athlete will be recorded.
If you have an internet connection, you can even follow it online in real time, just like you are used to with track competitions!
What do you need?
How do you set up Athletics.app?
We have created an explanation of how to set up Athletics.app for a cross country event. It works almost the same as you are used to for track events, with the additional intermediate step of creating your own custom event.
You can find the instructional video here (the video starts after the 1st minute, the first minute is specifically for Belgian clubs)
Practice with the Jury App
The Jury App has a test competition that you can use to try out registering a starting shot and scanning bib numbers.
You can print this PDF file to scan QR codes: print this PDF file to scan QR codes from it.
And if a QR code is covered in so much mud that it cannot be scanned, you can also try out how to quickly enter a bib number yourself.
Last year, we provided a finishing order and time to more than 10,000 athletes in this way.
Download the jury app for iOS and Android
Which barcode scanner can I use?
We recommend the barcode scanner from DTRONIC can be used, but in principle any barcode scanner that can be connected to your phone or tablet via Bluetooth will do the job.
The barcode scanner costs 89 euros on bol.com.
You connect the barcode scanner to your phone via Bluetooth. The barcode scanner registers on your phone as an external keyboard. The QR codes on the bib numbers contain nothing more than the bib number itself.
The barcode scanner will easily last all day. It is not formally waterproof, but in our experience it is not a problem in the rain, but don't throw it in a puddle of water.
The biggest advantage of this barcode scanner is that you can click your phone (of almost any size) into the scanner. This allows you to easily hold your phone and barcode scanner in one hand.
How do I get QR codes on bib numbers?
If your cross country event is very small, you might get away without QR codes. After all, you can also manually enter bib numbers in the jury app. But we recommend always working with QR codes, as they ensure you can work flawlessly and at lightning speed. It also increases the reliability of the recorded times. You can order bib numbers from startnummerexpress.nl order bib numbers, email or call them and indicate that you would like the QR codes from Athletics.app on the bib number, and they will take care of the rest.
If you already have bib numbers, you can also print the QR codes from Athletics.app on sticker sheets and then stick them on the bib numbers. You may already be familiar with this from track events. You can do this via the right-hand menu > print bib labels.
This has been automatically translated into English
