Here's an interesting dilemma. The Indianapolis Mini Marathon was yesterday and two runners apparently broke the tape at the finish line at about the same time. One of the runners was declared the winner based on his chip time. These days runners wear chips (see yoppy's photo above) on their shoes which measure the time from the moment they cross the start line until the moment they cross the finish. In this way the exact time for every runner can be calculated even though it may take some runners several minutes to even get to the start line when there's a big crowd. It also means that the organizers can get the results online quickly following (or even during) the race.
But in this case it seems crazy to go by the chip time. Since the chip is tied to a shoe, its position can be anywhere in the runner's stride at a given moment. And since there are two moments being measured (at the beginning of the race and at the end) this potential measurement error is compounded. And of course, for yesterday's race the runner who came in second according to the official chip time claims he was the one who actually broke the tape (the traditional measure of who wins). Fortunately it sounds like race officials may review the decision considering video footage from a local TV station. But it's interesting that there doesn't seem to be any built-in mechanism for overriding the chip time in close races like this.
UPDATE: Now they've decided it's a tie.
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