One week on and we still have not posted full race results which is deeply disappointing for all of us involved in organising the Balfron 10k and must be so frustrating for all runners. We appreciate how important your race time is to you, and this situation falls well below the high standards we have consistently set for our event over the years.
As you may know, our chip timing supplier, Winning Time, suffered a major malfunction of their timing equipment which meant that the results from this were incomplete. In addition to this, they took manual and video records but these too were incomplete and inaccurate. Winning Time compiled these records including corrupted data and published them on their website. In the short time they were live, we had a number of complaints due to the errors and omissions. We were not happy with the results being published in this state and asked Winning Time to remove them.
Winning Time have admitted full responsibility for these failures. They have provided us with their results and also scans of their manual records but not any video recordings despite repeated requests. They now say they have done all they can, will not help sort out the results mess, effectively shutting the door on us. Should you wish you can contact Winning Time directly here:-http://www.winningtimeuk.com/index.php?page=contactus
We are now working through every finish line photo we have, to place runners and confirm the results as best we can. The final results will likely still be incomplete, and will be based on gun time, as the chip time records are incomplete.
How you can help
We have posted some pictures of finishers with obscured or no number. If you recognise yourself or anyone else, please let us know. Please email to info@balfron10k.org.uk
What next?
Once we have reasonable confidence in the results we will publish on the website. It is a lengthy and time-consuming process but we aim to have the results published this week.
Finally
I would like once again to apologise to everyone concerned for this situation. We have used Winning Time for the previous 7 years without a problem. However the company has changed hands since last year’s race, and after we had booked them for this year, the lead timekeeper who had previously worked on the Balfron 10k also left the company. We will not use Winning Time again and can no longer recommend their services to anyone else. You can rest assured that the Balfron 10k team will do everything we can to provide the most accurate results possible. Next year is the Balfron 10k’s 10th anniversary and we can promise you a return to our usual high level of service. We hope to see you in 2016.
Colin Mendham
Race Director
colin@balfron10k.org.uk