A PB season for our photo-finish judges

8 April 2021

A PB season for our photo-finish judges

As we wind down a summer of competition which has been like no other season due to the challenges of COVID, it is an opportunity to reflect and thank one group of officials who have provided exceptional service.

With more competitions away from Sydney Olympic Park Athletics Centre, there has been an extra dynamic for our photo finish judges. While most athletes, coaches and officials take just a bag of equipment to a competition, the photo-finish crew lug dozens of kilograms of fragile equipment in large safe cases. It can easily fill a car boot. They also need lots of extra equipment on site like tents to cover the camera and computer equipment, finish line poles to mount the equipment etc. The group have had to meticulously plan the movement of the equipment between competitions, weeks in advance.

In February there were three competitions in Canberra where NSW’s photo-finish judges were asked to support. The crew not only setup equipment on the home straight but also at the opposite end of the 100m straight to enable the athletes to run in the opposite direction and take advantage of tail winds. There have been occasions after they competed the two-hour setup of the photo finish the equipment, it was not used as the wind changed. For the NSW championships, they used five cameras and that excluded the two-venue photo-finish cameras. They setup two for each direction and a fifth to capture the 100 yards times which yield an Australian record.

Two of the Canberra competitions were on Thursday night and the equipment and judges were required back in Sydney and Mingara for competitions commencing on the Friday. That alone required two days off work and was four straight days of work.

Much of there extra work, is to setup an opposite direction camera, which is precisely to assist athletes to achieve faster times and PBs. Two pioneers of this work a few years ago, Graham Kearns and Rob Jones, were dubbed ‘the backstraight boys’.

The NSW team are also experts in quick reading and displaying of results on the scoreboard, almost as quick as athletes can slowdown, turn and view the scoreboard. The team have also for years provided a top class service to distance runners, providing lap times for every distance runner that they can down load in a pdf.

Thanks photo-finish crew, led by Janet Nixon, Tony Smyth, Rob Jones, Graham Kearns, and supported by Daniel Warren, Adam Mylonas, Murray Gaudin and Ellie Jones - an absolute PB season for you all.

David Tarbotton for Athletics NSW

Images: photo-finish judges at NSW Championships