FAT System to be introduced at National Schools’ Championships

Nov 11, 2016 Sports

The Fully Automatic Timing System (FATS) that primarily produces and pronounces on photo-finishes in athletics will be introduced for the first time at the upcoming 2016 National Schools’ Cycling, Swimming and Track and

FLASHBACK! TOO CLOSE TO CALL! Races like these from last year’s National Schools’ Championships will be easier to judge with the introduction of the FAT System.

Field Championships, scheduled for November 22-25 at the National Stadium, Providence.
President of the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) met with officials from the Organising Committee of the Schools Championships yesterday to finalise arrangements for the introduction of the internationally recognised system.
“The role of the AAG is to assist with the development of the sport,” Hutson said, adding that the FAT System solves the issue of improper time-keeping. “The FAT System will remove all doubt in close finishes,” he noted.
The Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) had acquired the system in 2014 and handed it over to the athletics association. The FATS is International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) ratified as the proper mechanism for recording times in races.
According to the IAAF, any record in athletics (World, Olympic, or National) or qualifying time for Olympic Games or World Championships must be FATS recorded to be valid. Hutson stated that there will be photographic evidence of finishes to settle disputes.
The GOA-acquired FAT System came complete with the starting-gun that sends electronic signal to the timing system when fired. It also has the Digital Line-Scan Camera, which is angled across the finish line, and captures as much as 1000 frames per second.
One of the main advantages of the introduction of the FAT System at Nationals is that the AAG will record performances that it can use for national and international purposes such as selection of national teams and sending to IAAF for ratification as records.
Apart from managing the FAT System, the AAG will also ensure that the track is marked to the correct specifications and support the manual record-keeping process with the Meet Manager – an electronic record keeping mechanism that will make it much easier to input data to the National Sports Commission (NSC) database, which is under construction.
These systems will ensure that the process of transitioning the Schools’ Championships from just school sports continue along a technological path. The systems will also continue to raise the standard of the Championships, compatible with international best practices.

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