If you've seen a track result with three decimal places, or a "hand time" that got slower on paper, you've met fully automatic timing.
What FAT is
Fully automatic timing (FAT) means the clock is started electronically by the starter's gun and stopped by a camera that photographs the finish line — no human pressing a stopwatch. We use FinishLynx photo-finish cameras, the standard at high school and college meets, which deliver NFHS-compliant fully automatic timing (FAT) to 1/1000 of a second.
How a photo-finish camera works
A photo-finish camera isn't taking normal pictures. It's a line-scan camera aimed precisely at the finish line, capturing a one-pixel-wide slice of the line thousands of times per second. Stitched together, those slices form an image where the horizontal axis is time. Each athlete's torso is placed on that image, and their time is read straight off it. That's how two runners who look tied to the eye get separated by 0.003 seconds.
Why hand times get adjusted
A person with a stopwatch reacts to the gun's smoke or sound and to the finish a little differently than a camera does, which makes hand times look faster than they really are. That's why hand times are converted before they're compared with FAT marks — the common conversion adds 0.24 seconds to hand times in sprints up to 400 meters and 0.14 seconds in longer races. Rankings and state-qualifying lists usually require FAT for sprint events, so check your section's rules before a big meet.
What else FAT gives a meet
- Lane-by-lane accuracy for every heat, with the image saved as proof.
- Wind readings for sprints and horizontal jumps with a Lynx wind gauge.
- Seamless results: times flow straight into Hy-Tek Meet Manager, which produces heat sheets, team scores and the results posted on this site.
Running a meet? Request FAT timing.