The transponder
Passive, battery free, worn at the ankle. Reused from one wave to the next and one race to the next.
Chip timing
What happens between the line and the leaderboard
The principle comes down to three parts, a transponder, an antenna and software. Here is how they work together.
Where we travel The published price covers France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Germany, where booking happens online. For an event anywhere else, write to us, we price the transport and we come.
A timing chip, or transponder, is a passive tag strapped to the ankle with velcro. It contains no battery and no active electronics. When it passes over the antenna laid on the line, the antenna powers it by radio frequency for a fraction of a second, reads its unique identifier and timestamps it. That is all. Everything else is software.
What you get
The antenna
A mat or bar laid on the line. It reads dozens of transponders a second without missing a crossing.
Net time
The clock starts at the real crossing of the start line, not at the signal. That is what makes waves fair.
Gun time
Measured from the start signal to the finish. It is the official time used for podiums on mass starts.
Publishing
Every crossing feeds the leaderboard, which updates on the big screen and on every athlete phone.
-
Gun time runs from the start signal to your finish, even if it took you two minutes to reach the line. Net time runs from your crossing of the line to your finish. On a wave start only net time makes sense.
-
It is very rare with a properly laid antenna. A second control sensor lets you recover a missing crossing and validate the course.
-
No. The setup goes down in minutes and is driven from a browser. We stay reachable throughout the event.
-
Yes, they stay online and export. The leaderboard page keeps being found by your race name for years.
Other timed disciplines
- How much does chip timing cost One price for the weekend, not a subscription. You know what you pay before you book.
- Time a trail without staying up all night A mass start, several distances, an aid station to control. The sensor does the work, you run the race.
- The backyard, the format that breaks every stopwatch One loop an hour, for days on end. The one format where counting laps by hand is impossible.
- Obstacle racing, in waves and without bottlenecks Starts every few minutes, penalties to fold in, multiple categories. The timing keeps up.
- Ten k, half marathon, corporate run The most classic format, with the same demands as the rest. Net time, instant results, a page that stays online.
- Canicross, bikejoring, run and bike Starts one by one every thirty seconds, harness categories to separate. A textbook case for net time.
A question about the setup
We explain in ten minutes what your specific format needs.
Trademarks mentioned belong to their respective owners. Throwdown is neither affiliated with nor a partner of these organisations.
