Australian running borrowed its official clock from a global rulebook. World Athletics Technical Rule 19 — “Timing and Photo Finish” — is the document Australian championships stand on. Australian Athletics then tells you where those championships sit on the year. This hub translates the rule into the questions a road runner actually asks, without inventing a course record or a start-wave time.
The finish is a body, not a shoe
Before timing, Rule 18 still decides place. Athletes are placed in the order in which any part of the torso — not the head, neck, arms, legs, hands or feet — reaches the vertical plane of the nearer edge of the finish line. The line itself is a white mark 50 millimetres wide on the track. Outside the stadium it may be wider and another colour, but it still has to contrast.
That is why a shoe-mounted chip can disagree with a judge. The chip is usually on a limb or a bib. The place is a torso. A honest timing briefing will say so out loud.
Three official clocks
Rule 19.1 names three methods that may be official:
- Hand timing
- Fully automatic timing from a photo finish system
- Transponder timing for competitions held under the out-of-stadium race rules (and the other specified non-stadium cases the rule lists)
Hand timing is not a joke method. For track races, a hand time that is not an exact tenth is rounded up to the next tenth. For races partly or entirely outside the stadium, the same idea applies at the next whole second. Three watches, a Chief Timekeeper, and a written protocol still produce an official time when the meeting is set up that way.
Fully automatic photo finish is the stadium standard for anything that wants a record-quality performance. The system must start from the starter’s signal, sit on the finish line, and let a judge read a picture. A system that only automates one end of the race is not a full FAT system under the rule.
Transponders are allowed only where the rule says they are allowed. They are not a blanket replacement for the camera on a 100 metres.
What a legal transponder system has to do
Rule 19.24 is a checklist, not a brochure:
- none of the equipment at the start, along the course or at the finish should force an athlete to act
- the transponder and housing must be light
- the system starts from the starter’s gun or is synchronised with the start signal
- the athlete should not have to do anything to “clock in”
- times not ending in zero are converted and recorded to the next longer whole second for the races the rule names
- finishing order and times from the transponder may be used, but organisers should still have judges and a backup so the torso rule is respected
If a race director cannot tick those boxes, they do not have a Rule 19 transponder result. They have a gadget.
Gun time, chip time, and the argument in the chute
Road races in Australia usually put a mat at the start and a mat at the finish. The gun (or horn) is the legal start of the race clock when the system is synchronised as the rule requires. Your chip start is when your transponder crossed the first mat. In a crowded mass start those moments can be seconds apart.
Championships and record attempts care about the race clock. Many community events publish both, and some rank age-group prizes on chip time. That ranking choice belongs in the event’s race instructions. This site will not invent a house rule. Read the PDF you ticked when you entered.
Net time through a split mat is training gold and legal fool’s gold. A 10 kilometre split on a city course is not automatically a 10 kilometre performance. The course measurement, the start synch and the event licence decide that. Training covers how to use splits without lying to your logbook.
Stadium versus road
A Saturday night 400 metres at a licensed athletic track and a Sunday 10 kilometres through a CBD are both “running,” and they do not share a timing culture.
On the track, photo finish and wind readings (Rule 17) dominate. A legal following wind for a record is a measured quantity, not a feeling. Intermediate times shouted from the infield can become illegal assistance if they breach the rule on who may call splits.
On the road, refreshment stations, course certification and transponder mats dominate. The Australian Athletics calendar is where national road championships are listed; it is not scraped into a table here because the list moves and this rebuild does not invent dates.
What the old domain did not do — and what we will not fake
The 1998–2012 archive is a motorsport timing workshop that later kept human-powered-vehicle calendars. It was not a running-chip retailer. Adding a running hub is a current editorial choice because the domain now serves a broader Australian timing brief. It is not a claim that RaceTime Computing timed your fun run.
We will not publish a leaderboard, a course record, or a “best timing company” list. If you need a supplier, ask the state association or the event licence documents. If you need a protest, ask the referee, not a contact form.
A runner’s briefing card
- Know whether you are racing for a championship performance or a community ranking.
- Pin the bib or lace the chip where the organiser’s instructions say. A folded bib is how mats miss people.
- Cross the finish line running through, not along the barrier — the torso rule is unforgiving in a close sprint.
- Screenshot your unofficial chip time if you like. Believe the published result.
- For dates, open athletics.com.au/event-calendar and your state body. Then stop looking for a third, unofficial list.
The clock is kind when you understand which clock you joined.