The first use of computer chips in Bermuda to record runners? times and positions during International Race Weekend has proved so successful that the shoe chips and electronic finishing mats may return for the End-to-End charity walk and possibly the May 24 Marathon Derby.

This year?s running festival was the first trial on the Island for the technology, which is used in big city events around the world to accurately keep track of where runners finish and their race time.

The small pretzel-size plastic chips are secured to runners? shoelaces and automatically trigger a recording device as they step onto the finish line mat, which is filled with electronic sensors capable of handling 1,200 athletes-per-minute.

Granite State Race Services? Bob Teschek said he had been approached with enquiries from organisers of the End-to-End walk and May 24 regarding the possibility of bringing the hi-tech mats and ChampionChips back to Bermuda.

Although there were a few glitches, particularly where runners competing in different races on different days forgot to swap their chip or wore the wrong one, the GSRS team were able to produce race results almost instantly and on occasion, such as during Saturday?s 10K, they rectified a ?wrong chip? result within a minute of an athlete crossing the finish line.

Teschek said: ?The equipment has worked as well as we expected it too. It had been a question of shipping all the gear to the Island and tying it up for a while. Fortunately at this time of year there are not so many other events being held.?

The rubber mats cost around $1,000 each and are filled with sensors that register a ChampionChip as it crosses above. The chips themselves cost around $30 each.

For race weekend black rental chips were handed out to all athletes and these were returned at the end of the races. Increasingly runners are purchasing their own personal computer chip tag, costing $30, which they can use again and again in whatever race they compete.

It would be an opportunity for the Island to move ahead if someone was to sell these lifetime chips to Island athletes, suggested Teschek.

He said the chip and mat system was most worthwhile where there were large numbers of competitors crossing a finish line - the End-to-End being a prime candidate with its 1,000 or so participants, or May 24 with its 500-600 runners.

And Teschek said one possibility was to bring the equipment to the Island a week earlier next year to assist with the Fairmont to Fairmont road race if the organisers decided to use the system.