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Live races: approving the first medals

How a live race works, what you can set up today, and how to release its medals while race-day approval is still on its way.

A live race is one where your timing company sends each runner's result to Breaktape as they finish, rather than you uploading a file the next day. The aim is that finishers get their medal soon after they cross the line, while you still approve everything before it goes public.

How live release is designed to work

  1. Before race day, you approve the medal design and check it with test medals.
  2. On race day, results arrive from timing, one runner at a time. Each one is marked final only when the timing is official.
  3. The first medals are held for you to check. Once you're happy they look right, you let the rest go.
  4. From then on, each medal goes out as its runner's result goes final.

Medals are only ever made from final results. A result sent as provisional waits until timing marks it final.

What you can set up today

  1. Choose live results for the race. Open the race's settings and, under How results arrive, choose Live, as runners finish. The other choice is A results file after the race.
  2. Make a key for your timing company. Go to Settings, then API, and make a key with Send results ticked. See API keys and the API reference.
  3. Give them the race id. The Race ids table on the same page lists every race with a Copy button. Results are sent for one race at a time.
  4. Point them to the API reference at app.breaktape.com/developers, which explains how to send results and mark them final. See Sending live results.
  5. Approve your design early. Use the preview and test medals so the design is settled before race day. See Previewing and test medals.

Approving the first medals on race day

The race-day step, where you check the first live medals and let the rest flow, isn't available in the organiser panel yet. Until it is, results your timing company sends live are received and kept, but they don't become medals on their own.

For now, release a live race's medals the same way as a file:

  1. When the official results are ready, ask your timing company for the results file.
  2. Import it under Imports, check it and approve it. See Importing results.
  3. Check the sample and release. See Checking a sample and releasing medals.

If you're planning a live race, tell us at support@breaktape.com before race day and we'll talk you through the timing.

Good to know

  • Some timing companies only give provisional results on the day. If yours can't mark each runner's result as final, choose A results file after the race instead.
  • Every result needs its final flag. The API refuses a result without one, so nothing provisional can slip through.
  • Corrections after release are fine. A changed time or a disqualification gives the runner a corrected medal, and the old one points to the new one. See Correcting results.
  • Pausing works the same in either mode. See Following delivery and fixing failed emails.

Still stuck?

Email support@breaktape.com and tell us which guide you were reading.