UPDATE: Perceptive Data have launched RACE EXPLORER as a new service for all timed sporting events. See more at https://raceexplorer.com
The sport event analytics idea came to me some time ago while searching through pages of competitor lists to find both friends and myself in numerous running events (despite my efforts I don’t usually feature on the first page of results :). Why couldn’t we visualise where we placed in the field through the use of a chart, using our timed result as an indicator of finishing position? The Race Analytics visualisation project was born.
This development is a rather unique way to view timed racing events (see the visual interactive at the bottom of this post). I’ve discovered that building sport event analytics like this also shows the distribution of competitors for the event. For example, you can easily reveal, “Hey, I’m at the back of that large group. If I had just run 2 minutes faster….”.
The pop-up tooltip then provides all of the competitor’s race data, similarly to what would be provided in a traditional results list. Thus, all of the original race data is still available, but it’s now provided in context and on-demand.
A competitor search is still an essential part of the visualisation. We can identify the competitor by hovering the mouse over their figure, but as the event grows in size, so does the number of icons on the screen. The Competitor Search is a quick lookup feature to pinpoint the competitor’s place in the field.
Sport event analytics can naturally extend to cycling, swimming and other events, including multi-stage events such as triathlons. Contact Race Explorer to visualise your race results.