Concepts and Workflow Reference

Purpose

One consolidated reference for 2Timer terminology, data model, connectors, and end-to-end workflow patterns.

Prerequisites

• Basic familiarity with chip timing or meet management operations.
• Access to 2Timer at /app.

Platform Overview

2Timer is a browser-based meet management and timing application.

• All meet data is stored locally in your browser — no server is required during timing operations.
• Most core meet workflows continue offline after the app has loaded, but internet-based features still need a connection. See Offline Access and PWA.
• Meets are backed up and transferred as .2t archive files — a single portable file that restores everything.
• Road racing and cross country workflows are mature. Track & field support (seeding, heats, rounds, field events) is actively expanding.

Core Concepts

Meet

Top-level container for everything: events, athletes, results, connectors, and configuration.

Sport controls the time mode and available features:

Genre refines display defaults (which columns are shown — team, age, city, grade) within a sport.

Event

One scheduled contest within a meet. Every event has an event number that must match your timing system’s configuration exactly. For T&F, events also have a discipline (running, relay, horizontal jumps, vertical jumps, throws, or multi-event) that controls how results are recorded and displayed. Multi-round events (prelims → finals) have each round configured separately.

Super-Event

A super-event is a container for one physical race or contest that feeds results into two or more separate sub-events. Operators typically time or import the combined race once, then let 2Timer route results back to the correct sub-event for separate placements and scoring. Entries remain on the sub-events, not on the super-event container.

Athlete

A participant profile: name, bib number, gender, age, date of birth, city, state, and team.

Entry

Links one athlete to one event and one round. Holds the result: gun time, chip time, final place (both overall and within the heat for T&F), heat and lane assignments, seed, and outcome status.

Chip

A chip assignment maps a timing chip’s unique ID (as reported by the reader) to a bib number. Required for chip-timed events unless the timing system provides the bib number directly (as FinishLynx does).

Marker

A timing point on the course: Start, Finish, or Split. Assigned to one event. Has a read window that defines the earliest and latest valid time relative to the gun. Reads outside the window are flagged but preserved for manual review.

Read

One raw detection from a timing device. Each read is processed against active markers to determine whether it can be applied to an entry. See the Markers and Reads page for read status explanations.

Wave

A corral or sub-group start with a time offset from the gun. Athletes in a wave have their gun time adjusted by the wave delay for fair placing across all corrals.

Group

An award category (age group, overall open, masters band, etc.). Athletes are auto-assigned to groups based on age or grade. Each group has a configurable number of award places.

Division

An organizational grouping of events (e.g., Varsity Girls, Junior Men, Open Women). Does not affect timing — used for report structure and seeding organization.

Team

An organization code used in cross country and T&F team scoring. Athletes’ team affiliations are matched to team records to compute team totals. In T&F, teams can also carry a meet-wide lane slot for team-lane seeding.

Seeding Profile

A reusable T&F default ruleset that supplies discipline-group seeding behavior for new meets and round workspaces.

Session

A scheduled time block within a meet (e.g., “Morning Field Events”, “Afternoon Finals”). Used to organize large T&F meets across parallel venues.

Connector

A meet-level integration for inbound data (timing hardware reads) or outbound data (publishing results). See Connectors.

Integration

Reusable account credentials configured in Settings → Integrations. Connectors reference integrations for RunSignUp, FTP, and S3 connections.

Import and Export Summary

Import Sources

Export and Publishing

Typical Workflow

1. Create meet — Set sport, genre, date, venue, and placement settings.
2. Add events — Assign event numbers consistent with your timing system. Set discipline for T&F events.
3. Configure divisions and groups — Divisions for structure; groups for age group awards.
4. Import athletes and entries — CSV, semicolon-format files, or RunSignUp sync.
5. Assign chips — Map chip IDs to bib numbers if your system requires it.
6. Create markers — Start and finish (and splits if needed) with correct read windows.
7. Configure connectors — Link timing hardware for inbound reads; set outbound publishing targets.
8. Pre-race test — Verify test reads land as Used.
9. Seed T&F rounds — Use the seeding queue, workspace, bulk seeding, and advancement tools as needed.
10. Run the meet — Monitor reads, resolve exceptions in real time.
11. Post-race — Finalize athlete statuses, generate reports, archive the meet.

Related Pages

• Getting Started
• Importing Data
• Connectors
• Markers and Reads
• Timing Workflow
• Results and Reports
• Super-Events
• Seeding and Advancement
• Seeding Profiles and Defaults

Metadata

• Last Updated: 2026-04-11
• Version: 0.4
• Status: Active