Importing a results file

Medals are made from your official results. You upload the file your timing company or registration platform gives you, check it, and approve it. Nothing reaches a medal until you've approved the import.

Before you start

• Add the event, its edition and its races first. Every row needs a race to go into.
• Choose a medal design for each race. Draft medals are made as soon as you approve results, and a race without a design is skipped.
• Set each race's age policy, or you won't be able to release its medals.

Entry lists and results

Breaktape takes three kinds of file:

• Entry list from registration: names, emails and bibs, before race day.
• Results from the timing company: times, positions and statuses. Used to make medals.
• Both in one file: common for smaller events.

Results are matched to the people on your entry list by bib number first, then by email address. That's how names and email addresses reach the medals, even when the timing file only has bibs and times.

If you haven't uploaded an entry list, choose Both in one file for your results, so each finisher is added as they're imported.

Upload a file

1. Go to Imports and select Upload a file. You can also use Upload results on your Overview page, or Import a file on the event's page.
2. Under Which event, choose the event and year.
3. Under What's in the file, choose the kind of file.
4. For results, answer Are these the final results?:
   • Final, official results: the timing company has signed them off.
   • Provisional: still changing: nothing is issued until a later file marks them final. If the file has its own final or provisional column, that decides for each runner instead.
5. Drag your file onto the box, or select it.
6. Select Continue to column matching.

What Breaktape can read

• CSV files and Excel files saved as .xlsx.
• Up to 20MB and 200,000 rows. A bigger file can be split, for example one file per race.
• Title lines above the column headings are skipped. In a workbook, the first visible sheet is read.
• Column names don't matter: you match them on the next screen.

If a file can't be read, Breaktape tells you why and what to do. The most common reasons:

What happens next

1. Match columns. You tell Breaktape which column is which. See Matching your file's columns.
2. Checking. Breaktape checks every row. A large file can take a minute or two, and shows as Checking on the Imports page.
3. Review. You look over any problems and approve. See Reviewing problems before you approve.
4. Draft medals. For results, Breaktape makes draft medals for every finisher whose result is final. You then check a sample and release them.

Good to know

• Every file you've uploaded is listed on the Imports page, with its rows, errors, warnings and where it's up to.
• Upload each race's full results in one file. Draft medals are made when you approve, and finishers added by a later file aren't picked up automatically yet. A runner already imported is updated by a later file, never duplicated.
• Uploading a corrected file later is how you correct results. See Correcting a result after medals are out.
• Only admins and editors can upload and approve files.

Related guides

• Matching your file's columns
• Reviewing problems before you approve
• Live results from your timing company
• Checking a sample and releasing medals