How Breaktape works

Breaktape turns your official results into a personal digital medal for every finisher. Each medal is signed, so anyone can check it's genuine, and it's emailed to the finisher soon after you release it.

Here's the whole journey, from set-up to the moment a finisher shares their medal.

The journey

1. Set up your event. Add the event, this year's edition (its date, place and time zone) and its races, such as Marathon and Half marathon. Each race has its own results, positions and medal design.
2. Design your medal. In Medal designs, choose a shape, colours, artwork and what each medal shows. Preview it against your longest finisher name, then choose it for each race in Race settings.
3. Get your results in. Upload the results file from your timing company as a CSV or Excel file. You match its columns to Breaktape's fields, check any problems Breaktape finds, then approve the import.
4. Breaktape makes draft medals. Once you approve the results, Breaktape makes a draft medal for every finisher whose result is final. Nobody can see a draft.
5. You check a sample and release. On the race's Check a sample, then release page you see real draft medals picked because they're the most likely to look wrong: the longest name, the race winner and the last finisher. If they're right, choose when the emails go and release.
6. Each medal is signed and emailed. Every medal gets its own page and a verification link. The finisher's email has two buttons: Keep your medal and Share your medal.
7. The finisher keeps and shares it. Finishers keep their medal in their trophy cabinet, share it to social media and download share images. You see claims, shares and clicks in Analytics.

Two promises that never bend

• Nothing is public until you release it. Draft medals stay private, and nothing is emailed, until someone on your team presses release. Quiet mode lets you do a full dry run: every medal is made and stored, and no emails go.
• Medals only come from final results. Every result is marked final or provisional. Provisional results never become medals, however many times they're imported.

If a result changes later

Medals are never deleted. If the timing company corrects a result, you upload the corrected file. Breaktape keeps the old result, records the new one, and prepares a replacement medal for you to release. The old medal's page then says it was updated and points to the new one, and the finisher keeps it in their cabinet without doing anything.

Live results

You can also give your timing company an API key so results arrive as runners finish. Releasing medals automatically as each result goes final isn't available in the organiser panel yet, so for now every race is released from its results file.

Good to know

• Admins and editors can set up events, import results and release medals. Viewers and finance team members can look but not change anything.
• Under-13s never get a public medal page. Their medal is private and kept by a parent or guardian.
• Your Overview page lists everything waiting on you, so it's the best place to start each day.

Related guides

• Setting up an event, its editions and races
• Designing a medal
• Importing a results file
• Checking a sample and releasing medals