1. The 3 phones

Each phone has one job: tap the athlete's number as they pass. The gun time is set once in the system, so there is no phone at the start.

How athletes start: you choose

Either way, athletes just need a visible number (a race number or a race-number tattoo).

2. How the system works out the splits

The phones only record when each tap happened, as a time of day. The system works out each split from the gaps between the taps:

• Swim + T1 is the gun time to the Bike Out tap. It includes the swim and transition 1.
• Bike + T2 is the Bike Out tap to the Run Out tap. It includes the bike and transition 2.
• Run is the Run Out tap to the Finish time.
• Total is the gun time to the Finish time.

Here is one athlete, as the system sees it:

3. Watch it work (animation)

The gun goes and the clock starts. Watch one athlete swim, bike and run, the three phones record the taps, and the splits appear below.

4. Setting it up

1. Create the event. Choose the event type Triathlon Event (Swim, Bike & Finish). It creates the race and three timing points for you: Swim, Bike and Finish. Keep these names, as the Triathlon reports rely on them. Your three taps map onto them: the Swim point is tapped at Bike Out, the Bike point at Run Out and the Finish point at the finish line.
2. Set the gun time. Enter the time the swim starts, for example 08:00:00. You can do this from the race details, or with the Edit link next to Gun time in your event menu.
3. Add your athletes. Add them one at a time, or import a CSV with the number, name, gender, date of birth and club. Ages are turned into age categories automatically.
4. Set up the phones. Open the timing app on each phone, enter the event password (shown in your event menu), and in Settings pick that phone's timing point: Swim for the phone at Bike Out, Bike for the phone at Run Out, and Finish for the separate phone at the finish line.
5. Run the race. Start the swim on the gun time. Tap each athlete's number as they pass your phone. Results build up live.
6. After the race. Open the Results tab, and print the Triathlon Report or the Triathlon Category Report. Athletes can also see their own splits on the public results page.

5. Tips for marshals

• Tap the number as the athlete passes. The time is taken at the tap, so tap straight away, then check the number.
• Accidental double taps are fine. If the same number is tapped twice at a point, the earliest tap is the one that counts.
• Bike Out phone (set to Swim): stand where athletes leave transition 1 on the bike. Tap as the bike crosses the line.
• Run Out phone (set to Bike): stand where athletes leave transition 2 and start to run. Tap as they cross the line.
• Missed someone, or tapped the wrong number? Fix it afterwards in Raw Times (or from the athlete's own page) and their splits update.
• The Finish time sets the final result, so keep your best marshal on the finish phone.

6. Results and reports

7. Summary

• 3 phones: Bike Out, Run Out and Finish.
• Start: set the gun time once, or add a Start timing point and a 4th phone for waves.
• The system does the maths: swim + T1, bike + T2 and run from the gaps between the taps, and the total from the gun time to the finish.
• Live results: splits and positions appear as athletes finish, with printed reports at the end.

Three phones, three taps per athlete, simple results.