SEIKO & IAAF, The 30 Year Long Association

With the IAAF (International Amateur Athletic Federation) World Championships taking place in the Queen Elizabeth Stadium in London, beginning August 4, the 10-day long event sees another exciting landmark for Seiko and its timing technology.
Seiko has been the official timing and measurement expert for the IAAF since the 2nd World Championships held in Rome in 1987. The last 30 years have seen many innovations in track and field in all areas – from the track itself, the event tools, to the clothes the athletes wear. Seiko has continually advanced the timing and measurement technology it uses at major events and 2017 will be no exception, as it enters the 16th year of its association.

New technology takes several years to develop and test in the field, and once adopted, the systems are continually upgraded with new features. Major technology upgrades were seen in the 1990’s when fully integrated electronic systems gave faster and more accurate results by eliminating paper trails; the 2000’s saw the introduction of transponder technology for road events and, in the 2010’s, data and results started to be presented in colour and high definition formats, enhancing the experience for spectators in the stadium and on TV.

In 2017 Seiko will once again be showcasing its state-of-the-art timing and measurement systems over an amazing 10 days of track and field in the stadium as well as the men’s and women’s marathons taking place on the streets of London. There will be enhancements across all timing and measurement systems with an emphasis on data distribution.

Seiko systems are configured to allow athletes, broadcasters and spectators to get the information they need in the fastest, most effective way. At London 2017, the spectators will benefit from video boards located near the field events which will give them the information they need to follow their favourite competitors – athlete images and information will be given in the pre-show, results during the event, and if anything amazing happens elsewhere in the stadium then these boards will make sure everyone can share in the experience.

Elsewhere, the Seiko VDM (video distance measurement) systems will once again be overseeing the long and triple jump events and the Seiko starting system, with added video evidence which can be reviewed in real-time at the track side, will be helping the officials with decisions on any potential false starts.

In all, Seiko will have over 60 timing engineers at the event, providing timing and measurement services to 47 events during the 10 days of competition. Seiko will record the performances of around 1,800 athletes and will use its own proprietary equipment to do so. The equipment requires three containers to transport and will be operated by Seiko’s teams from the UK and Japan.