High-intensity action at supertri league timed by MATSPORT
The supertri league, a leading global triathlon event, has gained worldwide attention with its exciting team-based races and challenging courses. In 2024, supertri partnered with MATSPORT, an official MYLAPS partner, to integrate ProChip timing technology, ensuring accurate and reliable timing throughout the five-race series.
The leagure concluded on November 3rd in Neom, Saudi Arabia, wrapping up a five-race tour that included stops in Boston, Chicago, London, Toulouse, and finally Neom. This innovative league has transformed triathlon with team-based, high-intensity competitions in stadium-like settings, offering a fast-paced, spectator-friendly experience that resonates globally.
ProChip: the best-in-class timing technology for high-speed sports
The ProChip system is an active timing system for high-speed sports with an accuracy of up to 0.003 seconds. It is ideal for professional events like supertri as it has the highest accuracy rates in the industry, helping to determine even the closest of finishes. Essential equipment like decoders, transponders, detection loops, and software capture athletes' exact times at start, finish, and intermediary points.
The supertri series is timed using ProChip Smart Decoders and ProChip Timer transponders. The ProChip system not only records finish times but also monitors every transition, determines which team receives the short-chute bonus, and enforces the 90-second cut-off. The uniqueness of supertri lies in it's fast-paced format and team-based gamification, with rules that heighten the race's excitement, which are made possible with the accuracy of the ProChip.
Short Chute Bonus
The Short Chute, unique to supertri, offers a shortcut on the course, providing athletes with an immediate time advantage. Short Chutes are awarded early in the race to the first athletes to cross the Mount Line after the swim, the Dismount Line after the bike, and the Finish Line after the run in Stage 1, measured with a ProChip Smart Decoder and a loop placed at each of these lines. This feature boosts race excitement, encourages aggressive racing from the start, and enhances teamwork. With athletes able to earn the Short Chute for teammates, it adds extra layers of strategy and drama to the event. It’s the responsibility of each team’s manager to choose which athlete gets the short chute or not and “SC” will be displayed on the TV graphics next to the athlete’s name.
90-Second Rule
Another innovation of the supertri league is the 90-second rule. The 90-second rule is a cut-off that eliminates athletes that fall more than 90 seconds behind the leader. The 90 Second rule is enforced at the mount line, 90 seconds after the race leader has crossed, forcing the competitors to race all the way down the field if they want to avoid being eliminated.
Paul Castel, Lead Timer and Project Manager at MATSPORT, emphasized the importance of precise timing for the supertri series, stating, “You need active chips to time a triathlon...But you need ProChips to time the supertri. The unique demands of this format, along with the expectations of organizers, stakeholders, and broadcasters, mean there’s no margin for error. ProChip technology gives us—and everyone involved—complete peace of mind.”
Highlights from 2024 supertri Series
In the 2024 series, athletes competed in five races across five international locations. Each race featured similar distances: a 200m swim, 4km bike, and 1km run. For this season, all races consisted of three back-to-back swim-bike-run sequences with no breaks in between.
Crown Racing won the teams title with both of their athletes winning individual glory. In the women’s competition, Georgia Taylor-Brown clinched fourth place in NEOM, just enough to secure her third overall supertri title—but it came down to the wire. In the men’s competition, Crown Racing’s Hayden Wilde claimed the 2024 supertri title. His series victory wrapped up a thrilling finale, with Alex Yee edging out the New Zealander by just one second at the finish line in NEOM. The men's podium in NEOM mirrored the Olympic podium in Paris this year, with Yee taking first place, followed by Wilde in second, and Bergère in third.
About supertri
supertri has a vision to ‘Inspire The Competitor In Everyone’. Its professional racing falls under the supertri brand. supertri is the innovative and entertaining professional closed league formats that redefined the sport, delivering high-octane racing featuring the world’s best athletes competing in teams on stadium-like courses. supertri E is one of sport’s most innovative and award winning formats which blends real life and virtual racing, and which featured at the IOC’s Olympic Esports Week. Its supertri E World Triathlon Championship in partnership with World Triathlon crowns official Esports triathlon World Champions. It has an additional brand pillar which delivers some of the biggest short course triathlon participation events in the world and has raised millions for charity.
About MATSPORT
Specializing in timing, MATSPORT measures performance, develops TV display solutions and distributes technological timing and display equipment. The company is organized in 2 departments: MATSPORT Services, dedicated to the provision of services in sport and MATSPORT Timing for timing and Photo-finish solutions. MATSPORT is located in the heart of the first French technopole “Inovallée” in Saint Ismier, and works mainly on international sporting events and for world-renowned organizers, like A.S.O., ATOS, and FFA.
