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2Timer Help

Practical guides for humans, with structure that is easy for AI systems to parse.

Hand Timing with the Stopwatch

Time a race with no chips or photo-finish camera, using the stopwatch built into 2Timer, then turn the times and the bib order from the finish chute into scored results. This is the usual way small cross country and road meets timed by coaches and volunteers get their results.

What you need to hand time a race

  • An event for each race.
  • Bib numbers on your athletes. Entries in the race help but aren’t required: Apply Times creates results when needed.
  • One device at the finish line with 2Timer open, and a second device or a paper chute sheet to record bibs in finish order.

Hand timing in three steps: stopwatch, times, bibs

  1. Stopwatch captures a time for every finisher, in order.
  2. Apply Times puts those times on the race as placed results.
  3. Apply Bib Numbers lays the bib order from the chute over those results, so each time gets its runner.

Times and bibs are two separate lists. Either can go in first, and either can be corrected later without disturbing the other.

Step 1: Time the race with the stopwatch

  1. Open Stopwatch in the meet navigation, or on Entries with the race selected choose Tools → Stopwatch…. Both open Stopwatch Sessions.
  2. Press New Stopwatch Session.
  3. Choose the race, name the session if you like, and fill in Start the clock at only if you are joining a clock that is already running, such as a meet clock reading 15:00.
  4. At the gun, press Start the Watch. If the race’s gun was already recorded with the Gun control, press Start the Watch from the gun instead: the watch picks up at the race’s elapsed time and keeps that gun.
  5. Each time a runner crosses the line, press Space or Capture a Time. Typing a bib number before a capture tags that time for your own checking. Tags are removed before the times are applied.
  6. Backspace removes the last time, or the last digit of a bib you’re typing, if you pressed too early.
  7. When the last runner is in, press Enter or Stop the Watch, then confirm Stop the Watch. Keep Timing goes back to the running watch.

Leave the stopwatch while it’s running

The watch is saved the moment it starts. Press Leave It Running to go do other work. The clock keeps going, and you can pick the watch back up from Stopwatch Sessions. Several watches can run at once when races overlap, and every screen of the meet shows how many are running.

A watch that runs past 12 hours is stopped for you the next time the meet opens.

The starter recalled the field after I started the watch

  1. Press Stop the Watch and confirm.
  2. If nothing was captured, press Start Over. If times were captured, press Time Another Race. Either one returns to the start screen with the race and session name kept.
  3. Press Start the Watch at the new gun.

I hit Stop too early: reopen the watch

If you pressed Stop the Watch while a runner was still on the course, press Reopen the Watch on the stopped screen to get the watch back. It continues from the same start, so the clock reads the right elapsed time. You can reopen a watch for 15 minutes after you stop it. After that, type the missing time into the session’s list instead.

Step 2: Apply the times

  1. On the stopped watch, press Apply These Times. Or on Entries, choose Tools → Apply Times….
  2. Choose where the times come from: Use a stopwatch session, Type or paste, Load a file (TXT, CSV, or TSV), or, on a race that already has times, Edit the current times.
  3. Check the list and press Review.
  4. In the review, each time is paired with a finish place. Where the race already has placed entries without times, the time fills that place. Otherwise 2Timer creates an unidentified result at that place, waiting for its bib.
  5. When the times come from a stopwatch session, the review also offers Record the race start from this watch, because the watch was started at the gun. It is checked when the race has no gun yet, and unchecked when it already has one, with both times shown.
  6. Press the apply button. Places and the results status update right away.

Step 3: Apply the bib order from the chute

  1. On the Apply Times done screen, press Next: Apply Bib Numbers. Or on Entries, choose Tools → Apply Bib Numbers….
  2. Type or paste the bibs in finish order, one per line or separated by spaces, or choose Load a file for the chute recorder’s file.
  3. Review. Each bib appears beside its time and the athlete it belongs to:
    • A bib that appears twice is blocked until you fix the list.
    • A bib no athlete has is allowed and flagged. The result is kept on that bib until an athlete gets it.
    • A bib that belongs to an athlete of the other gender isn’t blocked here. It shows up afterwards as a gender mismatch on the meet’s Data Issues page.
  4. If the bib list is shorter than the list of finishers, choose Retain the remaining finishers or Clear the remaining finishers. 2Timer recommends Clear when five or fewer are left over, and Retain when more are.
  5. Apply. Times and places stay put; the runners are written onto them.

If an athlete already had an entry in the race without a time, that entry becomes their timed result rather than a second entry.

Hand timing a combined boys and girls race

If girls and boys ran together as a super-event, time the super-event and apply both lists on it. Until the bibs go in, finishers wait in the first division’s event. Applying the bibs sends each runner to the race for their gender, and the review says how many go where. See Super-Events.

Fix a missed or swapped bib, or a missed time, after hand timing

  • A bib was missed, or two were swapped, such as bibs 145 and 146: choose Tools → Apply Bib Numbers… → Edit the current bibs, fix the complete list, and apply again. Times and places don’t move.
  • A time was missed, or an extra press slipped in: choose Tools → Apply Times… → Edit the current times, add or remove the line in its proper place, and apply the complete list again. Runners stay attached to their places.
  • To keep a list before starting over: on the list step of either tool, Save to a file saves the list as it is. Load a file brings it back exactly.

Hand timing: check before you publish

  • On Entries, every finisher in the race has a place, bib, name, and time.
  • The results status reads Unofficial. Once every entry in the race has a place or a final status, it turns Official by itself after the results go unchanged for the meet’s quiet period (Results go official after on Setup, 30 minutes unless you change it). You can also set it yourself.
  • In cross country, the XC Team Finisher List report shows the expected scorers and displacers for each team, and lists incomplete teams with their finisher count.
  • Stopwatch Sessions shows the session as stopped, not running.

Metadata

  • Last Updated: 2026-10-12
  • Product Release: V1
  • Status: Active