Athletes dedicate their lives to training, to continually improving and fine-tuning their performance. But how are their efforts and performance measured technically?
Pursuing the perfect moment...
Athletes train to be the first, the fastest, jump the highest and throw the farthest… all energy goes into the pursuit of that perfect moment. Once that golden moment has arrived, the athlete feels it immediately. Everything fits to that one moment. The fluent throw, ultimate control or perfect pace. That latent potential is finally realised!
Then it’s the wait for the mathematical computations carried out by the operator of that yellow instrument on the side of the track… the surveyor that manages the expectations and has the final call for a personal, national or even world record.
Dedicated measuring software
The Czech Athletic Association brought in Geodis Brno, spol. s.r.o. who delivered Topcon total stations running Geotel s.r.o. dedicated athletic measuring software. This combination was used during the recent International Indoor Athletics Competition held in Prague on 28 and 29 January 2012. The competition also had other rounds in France, Great Britain, The Netherlands and finally Spain.
International standards
Geotels Athletics software runs directly on the GPT-7500 total stations Windows CE operating system. It has been designed to measure performances and records in a number of athletic disciplines, including discus, javelin, shot-put, long jump, triple jump and hammer throw.
Computing exact distances
Using total station technology means that the exact position of the javelin, hammer or athlete’s point of impact can be recorded – compared to the start point – and an accurate distance computed virtually instantly. This offers an incredibly fast results service and perfectly meets the International Athletic Federation’s (IAAF) requirements for dimension checking to centimetric measurement levels.
As well as being visible to the surveyor on the instruments LCD screen, the resulting data and information is also sent from the software to the large format display screens on the track side to inform both the athlete and the audience – hopefully to capture, for ever, the magic moment of that one perfect attempt.