International Competitions to Crash Tests

FINA World Junior Swimming Championships

Colorado Time Systems played a vital role in the 2nd FINA World Junior Swimming Championships held in Monterey, Mexico, July 13-18, 2008. As a sponsor of the event, CTS provided all of the timing equipment used in the races, in addition to providing a supplementary video display used at the facility to display all video and timing results.

Slide Like the Wind

Think waterslides are passive entertainment? Think again! SeaWorld recently hosted the European Sliding Championship at its new water park, Aquatica, in Orlando, Fla. — and CTS equipment was there. CTS provided a portable push-button system, with a numeric LED display.

The preliminary rounds were held in Germany and throughout Europe, leading up to the SeaWorld event. Up to 200 sliders competed on Aquatica's Taumata Racer slide for the €10,000 grand prize — a wonderful incentive to hurtle headfirst down a waterslide.

Racers competed in three classes: under 60 Kg/132 pounds, over 60 Kg/132 pounds, and families with members of all ages. Every competitor was allowed two runs to determine the fastest time in each class.

The winning times were:

• Under 60 Kg/132 pounds: 9.72 seconds
• Over 60 Kg/132 pounds: 9.51 seconds
• Family: 10.02 seconds

So, although waterslide racing may not be a sport you've ever heard of, it's interesting to note that CTS's existing equipment was fast and accurate enough to handle the challenge of timing a world-class sliding event!

Keep on Truckin'

Getting run over by a big truck isn't the typical use for swimming touchpads, but it's been done.

Touchpads and a System 6 from Colorado Time Systems were used to determine the speed of a truck just before it crashed into barriers at the Engineering Research Center at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colo.

The goal of this exercise in destruction was to be able to pre-test anti-terrorism crash barriers, allowing inventors and designers to evaluate their barriers before going to the expense of full testing. The experiment is a project of CSU's Dr. Richard Gutkowski, professor of Civil Engineering, and graduate student Chris Turnbull-Grimes.

The touchpads won this contest — they had tire marks, but still functioned perfectly. The truck, however, was definitely the worse for wear after the crash.

View the movie of the crash test.