Press Release - Honolulu Marathon - 12/19/08

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

  ChampionChip Provides Immediate Results At The Honolulu Marathon 2008
 
Timing Honolulu Marathon huge success: ChampionChip proves itself with the 
                    latest state of the art technology

For this year's edition of the Honolulu Marathon the organization returned 
to the ChampionChip timing system, after last years' failure of getting the 
race results immediate after the race. Heavy rain at the race's start, 
improper usage and failed generators messed up that timing system that was 
used for the first time. It threw off the timing for many runners while 
others weren't timed at all. Due to this malfunction the Honolulu Marathon 
had to improvise a video review system to provide times to finishers months 
after the race ended.

With these lessons learned, the race officials decided to return to 
ChampionChip, the most widely used timing system in the world for road 
races. ChampionChip has proven to be a very accurate and reliable timing 
system and was previously used by the Honolulu marathon from 2000 to 2006. 
Race Director Jim Barahal: "We were very satisfied with the professional 
service provided by the Pacific Sports Events timing team. Although there 
were periods of heavy rain during this year's Honolulu Marathon, the 
ChampionChip system worked flawlessly and showed that it is a very reliable 
system which can provide exceptionally accurate results in extreme weather 
conditions".

"The timing, as far as reliability and backups, was better than it has ever 
been in Honolulu," said Steve Foster, co-owner of Pacific Sports Events, 
which was handling the timing with Sportstats, the largest timing company 
in Canada. "There was a primary and backup system at every location runners 
crossed to assure them of reliability."

This year the system also brought some new features to the marathon, like 
instant live results and text services and live leader boards that allowed 
fans to track participants in near-real time. In addition all participants 
could keep their chip as a souvenir, as a proof for their excellent 
performances. Steve Foster: "Because of the reliability of the systems, the 
event was able to have these real time live results with a relay response 
time of only about 20 seconds." 

All in all ChampionChip provided the race results for the 20,058 athletes 
immediately after the race and saw Patrick Ivuti winning in two hours, 14 
minutes and 35 seconds. Where the world's sixth largest marathon was a 
great success, the timing was perfect.

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