Starting races
You run the whole meet from one phone. Here's the shape of it, then every step in detail.
The 5 taps you'll repeat for every heat
- ⏱Run Heat swimmers displayed on timekeepers' phones
- START fire the start beep and start timing
- Stop stop timing once all swimmers have finished
- Save save race times, once all timekeepers have saved
- ⏹Finish Heat heat complete — move on to the next one
Before the meet, 4 things worth knowing
- You need a passcode.
- Unlike timekeepers, the race starter switches roles. Get the Race Starter passcode from your club admin before the meet begins.
- You start the race.
- Tapping START plays the start beep from your phone, through whatever speaker or PA it's connected to. Test it before the meet — and if it's a false start, the heat can be reset and run again.
- You can see every lane at once.
- Your screen lists each lane, its swimmer, and who's timing it. Lanes with nobody swimming, or without a timekeeper, are also shown.
- Timekeepers follow you automatically.
- Once the meet is open, get together with your timekeepers and make sure each one is on a different lane — they choose their own, so this has to be agreed between you. From then on their phones track yours through every heat and into the next event, and you never have to tell them what's coming. See Keeping time for what they see.
The whole meet at a glance
Four screens, each nested inside the one above. The colour tells you where you are.
- Tap ▶Open Meet Timekeepers are notified that the meet has started.
- Get together with your timekeepers and assign lanes
- Tap the meet card to show its events
- Tap Test Start Beep and confirm it carries to the blocks
- Tap the first Not started event to show its heats
- Tap ⏱Run Heat on a heat card Shows the heat's lanes and timekeepers.
- Tap START — the start beep fires
- Wait for the timekeepers to save their times A saved time turns white on black and stops. A running time is grey and still ticking.
- Tap Stop
- Tap Save Records the times and returns you to the heat list. False start? Tap Reset Heat instead, and run the heat again.
- Tap ⏹Finish Heat
- After the last heat, tap ‹ to return to meet details
- After the last event, tap ‹ to return to the meet list
- Tap ⏹Close Meet The meet card moves into your Complete list.
Switch to race starter
Meet list
Tap your current role at the top right and change it to Race Starter. You'll be asked for the race starter passcode.
Get the passcode in advance. It comes from your club admin, and it's the one thing here you can't work out on the day.
Test the start beep
Meet details
Tap the meet to open its details, then tap Test Start Beep and play it. You're checking one thing: that it carries to the blocks.
The beep plays from your phone, so it has to reach whatever speaker or PA your club uses. A phone on its own won't be heard across a pool.
Do this before you open the meet. It takes ten seconds, and it's the difference between a meet that runs and one that stops while somebody hunts for a cable.
If the beep plays but sounds thin or quiet, the test screen lists what to check. For connecting your phone to the club's speakers in the first place, see Setting up the start beep.
Open the meet
Meet list
Find your meet and tap ▶Open Meet. Every timekeeper is notified that the meet has started, and their phones come alive.
This is the moment the meet begins.
Until you open the meet, timekeepers see an empty lane and can do nothing. Open it once people are in position.
Assign lanes with your timekeepers
Meet list
Before racing starts, get your timekeepers together and agree who's covering which lane.
This conversation matters because you can't assign lanes from your phone. Each timekeeper picks their own lane, and nothing stops two of them choosing the same one and leaving another with nobody. A minute spent agreeing it up front is what prevents that.
You won't see who chose what until the heat is running
Timekeeper names only appear on your screen once you've tapped ⏱Run Heat. Until then you're relying on the conversation, so make it a clear one.
Two on a lane is fine
If more than one timekeeper times the same lane, their times are averaged. Some clubs roster two per lane deliberately so a single mistake doesn't spoil a result.
Open an event, then a heat
Meet details → Heat list
Tap the meet card to see its events. Events you haven't run yet are marked Not started — tap one to see its heats.
Then tap ⏱Run Heat on the heat you're about to race. This puts the heat on everybody's phone at once: your lanes fill in, and each timekeeper sees the swimmer they're timing.
Check your lanes before you start
Race timer
Your screen now shows every lane in the heat: lane number, swimmer, and the timekeeper covering it. Any lane without one is flagged No timekeeper.
That's your last chance to get someone onto it. You can't time a lane from the starter's phone, so a lane left uncovered will finish the race without a time.
About six or seven lanes fit on an average phone screen, so if your pool has more, scroll down to see the rest. Check the whole list before you start, not just what's visible.
Start the race
Race timer
Tap START. The start beep plays through your club's speakers and the clock begins.
Every timekeeper's phone locks to your clock, which is why one of them starting late doesn't matter, and why there's nothing to synchronise beforehand.
Stop, check every lane, then save
Race timer
Tap Stop once all your swimmers have finished. That stops your own clock.
A timekeeper's time doesn't reach you when they stop — it reaches you when they Save. Until then, that lane is still running on your screen.
- Not saved yet: grey background, dark text, still ticking over.
- Saved: black background, white text, frozen.
So before you tap Save, look down the list and check every lane has turned black. Saving is the deadline: a time that arrives after you've saved is too late.
A grey lane usually means a forgotten Save
Timekeepers press stop and then save, and it's easy to do the first and forget the second — or to be a while getting to it. If a lane is still grey, catch that timekeeper's eye before you save. There's no rush on your end.
Lanes marked No timekeeper never turn black
With nobody timing them, there's no time to arrive. Don't wait on those.
If a time looks wrong
A time may arrive for a swimmer still in the water — a timekeeper has stopped on the wrong person. You'll spot it, because you're watching both the pool and the screen. Tell them to press START again, confirm it's the same race, and the corrected time replaces the wrong one.
False start? Reset the heat
Once you've stopped, a blue Reset Heat button appears beside Save. It deletes the timekeepers' times and clears the start, so the same heat can be run again from scratch.
Reset before you save, not after. It's also how you recover if you tapped Stop by accident while the race was still going.
Finish the heat
Heat list
Saving brings you back to the heat list. Tap ⏹Finish Heat to close it off.
If there are more heats in this event, tap ⏱Run Heat on the next one and go round again. When the last heat is done, tap ‹ to return to meet details.
Move on to the next event
Meet details
Back on meet details, tap the next Not started event and work through its heats the same way.
Timekeepers follow automatically — there's nothing to tell them and nothing for them to re-select.
When the last event has been run, tap ‹ once more to return to the meet list.
Close the meet
Meet list
Tap ⏹Close Meet. The meet card moves into your Complete list, and the meet is done.
Don't skip this
Closing the meet is what marks it finished and moves it out of your active list.
That's the meet
Open the meet, work down through the events and heats, then close the meet. Every heat is the same five taps.
Starting for the first time? Read Keeping time as well. Knowing what your timekeepers see makes it far easier to help them when something goes wrong.