As records continue to tumble at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, people and technology are working together to measure the physical feats of the world's best athletes.
From the starter's pistol to the photo finish, modern athletics stadiums are packed with high-tech equipment. Japanese watch manufacturer Seiko, the company behind the technology being used in Budapest, uses precision cameras to track athletes who have tags attached to their vests. But Seiko Events manager Daniel Jones says accuracy isn't just important for the record books.
"Time technology advances really quickly, so there's a need for more information quicker," he says. "And that's what we seem to be seeing now, there's a move towards producing a greater number of precision results for entertainment purposes.
"So getting (fans) involved in understanding the race and how that's developing in live position. And we've seen a huge development in that, which is really good because it involves the viewers a bit more and they have an understanding (of the events).”
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Japanese technology firm Seiko is behind the technology being used to measure the physical feats of the world's greatest athletes at this summer's World Athletic Championships in Budapest. /Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters
Seiko controls the measurements for the track as well as the shot put, long jump and triple jump events.
Top Chinese men's triple-jumper Zhu Yaming narrowly missed out on a medal in Budapest. After the final, he said: "Usually, I don't foul on my first jump, but today was a surprising foul, so it may indicate that I may not be quite in the moment and I didn't have precise control over distance and accuracy.”
The system that alerted Zhu to that early foul jump is tucked away in the stand overlooking the landing pit. Seiko's Research and Development Manager Laurie Needham explains that the aim is to make sure that jumps are all fair, but also to give athletes as much info as possible.
Seiko uses its tech to measure precisely when athletes cross the line – among many other things. /Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters
"We have consoles you can see down at the track side which basically show a very simple little web app, and the athletes can see this. So they can see that jump and how far they were over the board and they can zoom in and out. We can also show them videos of their sequence if it's triple jump and they can see the actual landing image."
Athletes are continuing to run faster and jump and throw further. As they do, the technology used to track their achievements must also keep up.
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