Here is what I wrote shortly after the controversy on this thread:http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?board=1&id=4913331&thread=4911552
I was looking at the Delta results on line shortly after the race finished. Here is what I recall seeing:
--First unofficial results have Oregon comfortably winning.
--After a while, Providence is shown to be the winners on the on line stream. At this point, the results are screwed up on the Delta site. Finishers 1-4 are listed in places 26-29, but with their correct times. Pappas, running for Oregon, is listed as finishing in the top 3 with a time slower than those listed in places 26-29.
--The Delta site stops showing the results.
--Eventually the Delta site comes back up, with Pappas nowhere in the results (at least I didn't see her listed).
--The Delta site goes off line again.
--Eventually Oregon is declared the winner, and Pappas shows up in the results.
I'm baffled.
My best guess is this:
--Chip times go in OK.
--Review the video for close finishes. The first four or so are easy to sort.
--Somehow they make a mistake and the cursor goes back to the beginning. Then they make the place adjustments for the next couple of dozen places, all the while the first four or so places are moving back in the pack. This is how places 1-4 end up in places 26-29 with their proper times.
--Finally noticing the epic screw up, they try to fix it really quick. Working too fast, they lose at least a couple of runners entirely.
I have done finish line results for a number of races, but nothing of this scale or technology. I do have some knowledge of how things can easily get screwed up, based entirely on the experience of screwing things up.
The quote above is what I saw. The following text is pure conjecture, but it is consistent with what I saw in the results.