Discussion: Day 1 finish timing

Is there a chance that we have another case of unsynchronized finish boxes on Day 1? (I haven't looked at Day 2, but maybe that would be affected as well; it would be less noticeable with the longer chute.) Looking just at RedX, there are some anomalously fast times, notably my own; although I'd like to imagine that I covered 220 m in 44 seconds, my watch says it was more like 53 seconds. My Day 2 finish split is also 9 seconds faster than what I recorded. Maybe there were two boxes that were 9 seconds apart?

I noticed a discrepancy vs. my Garmin, assessed it at 7 seconds both days, and assumed both finish units were the same. There's no logical ground for the last statement, though.

The reason I suspect a mismatch is that it seems unlikely I could have turned in the 3rd fastest chute time on RedX on Saturday.

Was there even more than one finish punch? I don't remember.

I only remember seeing one finish punch.

I don't remember either, I'm just guessing that there was, because some people have more credible times.

And an unrelated question: what were the small OOB areas? There are a few on the map, just a handful of vertical purple lines, and underneath each is a small trail leading to a small black X. There's one on the Day 2 map on the south shore of Black Bass Lake.

There were two finish punch stations both days.

Photos confirm that.
https://www.facebook.com/OrienteeringUSA/photos/pc...

Ah, I see now (two punches on one stand; I only remembered seeing the one stand).

We've confirmed a 6 sec offset on the two punches. All punches except for one finish control were mastered at the same time. One of our "check" controls was changed to a finish the day prior to the event. We'll assess whether there is a placing change/reason for dispute of the results.

The small hashed areas are hike in campsites.

@jjcote Small OOB areas are backcountry campsites.

In M60, Mike Minium seems like a potential case ... 4th place, 11 seconds out of 3rd over two days*. I wonder if you can query the SI finish-units to determine who punched which of the two boxes on each day? How much data remains stored in the boxes?

* I suppose the likelyhood of a result-changing effect is pretty small. Theoretically (assuming independence which wouldn't be strictly true), a 1 in 16 chance that Mike punched the slow box both days and Roberto punched the fast box both days.

Ahh the good old unsynched two finish brick problem. I've encountered it a number of times now. When will the organisers learn?

I had the fast(er than GPS time) station both days

I wonder if it will turn out to more or less track which hand you carry your epunch in.

Update: The two controls were off by 7 seconds. Mike punched the same control both days and Roberto punched once on each. The result was Mike gained a 7 second advantage, so Roberto actually won by a larger margin.

There is another race, day 1 Green Y, that needs resolution as to whether national ranking points are affected.

Well, ranking points would definitely be affected for all courses, but it's an extremely minor effect.

Im definitely curious about whether the exact tie on Saturday still stands.

I made that mistake once actually putting an extra start box out at the last minute without coordinating its time with the master station. The difference was the difference between Standard and Daylight Savings Time. Never again!

Brian, thanks for bringing up my name, and Peter, thanks for checking!