We can now report that there are Lynx systems in 72 countries across the globe. You are part of an ever-growing group of Lynx owners and operators in varied sports on almost every continent; Lynx has yet to crack the market in Antarctica.

Lynx conveys its global and universal thinking in our company philosophy and product line. We will give our best service and technology to our customers, from the smallest system to the largest venue, from down the road to across the world.

We will continue to bring new technology to the world stage with the help of our customers, while supporting all that have come before.

In early March, Lynx held a seminar at Disney’s Wide World of Sports in Orlando, Florida. This inaugural Lynx International Resellers / New Technology Seminar drew business partners and IAAF representatives from 5 continents.

The three-day meeting was evenly divided between conference room sessions and product demonstrations at Disney’s Track and Field Spring Festival.

We were able to bring together a diverse group of Lynx resellers, operators, owners and support personnel whose combined experience with Lynx is best measured in numbers of decades than single years. As the seminar progressed it became abundantly clear how much value our highly qualified regional distributors add to the entire range of Lynx products.

The time spent together was mutually beneficial. Participants were able to meet some of their peers and they were able to share experiences and ideas with the Lynx group in attendance that are invaluable to the team back in Woburn. We hope we will be able to get together again with such an amazing group of individuals.

The first meet in the 2001 IAAF outdoor series was held on May 6^th in Rio de Janeiro. A Lynx team traveled to Rio for the sixth time in as many years to help administer the technology at the event. The Confederaçåo Brasil de Atletismo brought in some of its best operators for the competition.

One additional aspect to this year’s competition was wireless ReacTime False Start Detection. You can see the FinishLynx images and the ReacTime traces that the operators captured on CyberScoreboard, along with the reaction times from these races.

The Grand Prix format, in conjunction with live television broadcast, makes for an intense four hours of competition for the athletes, and for the Lynx operators.

Even under this type of pressure, the operators were able to make the tough calls with confidence. In the Men’s 100M, the reverse angle camera caught American sprinter Dennis Mitchell crossing the line mere thousands of a second ahead of Llewellyn Bredwood of Jamaica, to take second and third place respectively.

Lynx will send two representatives to San Juan, Puerto Rico from June 20-23^rd.

They will be there to lend their expertise and the latest in Lynx equipment to facilitate a Fully Automatic Timing course held in conjunction with the Puerto Rico National Championships.

Mr. Lenford Levy of the IAAF Regional Development Council invited Lynx to the proposed four-day course to benefit new and old Lynx customers alike. Two days of detailed instruction followed by two days of practical work at the meet will allow the Lynx instructors to introduce the attendees to new software features, and give the operators a chance to polish their Lynx skills.

While Lynx was not able to send a representative to Cairo, Egypt, we were able to lend support to another seminar organized by the IAAF Regional Development Council.

Mr. Mohamed Al Rahma of the UAE was invited to be the instructor at the seminar. Mr. Rahma had attended a similar seminar led by Lynx President, Doug DeAngelis held in Bahrain in 1996.

The seminar brought together 43 attendants from all over the Arab world. The course outline was a great success: Introduction: FinishLynx Software. FinishLynx in the Real World: 8 Hours of Hand-On Practice at the Stadium. Advanced Software and Concepts. Database and Various Sports Applications.

The Tour’s website reported: "After another successful finish, the Tour of Langkawi is ready for another upgrade of its status. The Tour was upgraded from 2.4 to 2.3 by the International Cycling Union". We are sure that the addition of a Lynx system to this year’s Tour contributed in part to that success.

Race consultants, The Events Group, brought in the Lynx system for the Tour. The color, two camera, timing-enabled EtherLynx system was hired from the British Cycling Federation.

With a results system in place that could generate a Lynx compatible file, the timing and results team was able to distribute start lists to Lynx for each stage of the race and accept Lynx .lif files back into the results software. "It was easy to program the import/export thanks to the ready availability of documentation and support", writes Seamus Shortall, whose stage race software was used.

On hand for the event, Seamus also wrote us that, "We got faster and slicker every day and on the final day, the complete, final 8 page result was handed to the Minister of Sport just after he stepped down from the podium." Slick and fast indeed.

Lynx would like to welcome the timing and results professionals of the Assokronos Trentina to the growing list of European Timing Services operating the Lynx system.

Within a few short weeks of the system’s arrival in Italy, it was being used at premier Italian Cycling and Athletic events: the 25° Giro del Trentino and the Rovereto Quercia d'Oro

Every four years the Games of La Francophonie has been held in a different country moving from Morocco (1989), to France (1994) and then to Madagascar (1997). In 2001, the Games will come to Canada and so will the crew from Lynx. The Ottawa-Hull region of Canada will host this unique event, a 10-day festival, July 14-24, featuring cultural and sport competitions.

Lynx has been invited to help administer the Athletics events at the Games. Five full days of competition following two days of preliminaries will keep the operators on hand busy.

The Lynx team will utilize the built-in data connectivity of Lynx to run stadium scoreboards, post real-time information to CyberScoreboard, and feed data for live television broadcasts while supporting the timing and meet administration team in place for the Games.

Romania’s Gabriela Szabo must love the Lynx operators from HS Sports. She added the 3000m record to her already impressive list of achievements at the Norwich Union Indoor Grand Prix held in Birmingham, England on the 18th, February. She is now the World Indoor Record holder in the 2000m, 3000m and 5000m.

The race was billed as a world record attempt and Szabo delivered, besting Holland’s Elly Van Hulst’s mark, which stood for 12 years, by nearly a second. The twenty-five year old Szabo crossed the finish line at 8 minutes 32.88 seconds.

The Penn Relays was looking for something that has long been missing from this illustrious event, database integration with FinishLynx and subsequently, scoreboard communication in real-time.

For years the Lynx operators at Penn have processed lane, place and time data and associated athletes with bib/hip letters using spotters on the field. This raw data was passed on to the Penn database operators. Athlete information would then be associated with an I.D. number in order to produce full results… after the days events.

With the introduction of the latest Lynx wireless technology into the technical components of this year’s Penn Relays, the Lynx operators were able to associate individual athlete information with their place and finish time within the FinishLynx software.

THE RESULT? Scoreboards with real-time results for the first time. Two sets of four-line boards on the front and back straights and two two-line boards in the end zones offered instant results to thousands of spectators in the stands.

"With the opening of the new athletics track at ANZ last week, progress towards the 2001 Goodwill Games is, well, it has to be said - on track!

A new scoreboard and new timing and scoring equipment has been fitted at the stadium, while more than $325,000 worth of athletics equipment, including hurdles, pole vaults and long jump pits, has been purchased for the 2001 Goodwill Games - equipment that will remain in Queensland after the Games conclude."

Although the facilities at the Beijing racecourse are still in their early stages - members and grandstand facilities are still to be constructed this year - the club has set up breeding and training facilities for over 5000 horses! It will be one of the largest tracks in the world.

The installation of Lynx technology consists of three EtherLynx 2000 cameras, one used as a backup, and a two camera main system.

Most racing facilities use a mirror for the inside image, but as this location has two turf tracks and a sand track, all with a common finishline, it was decided to use a 'mirror camera'. Because of distant location of the mirror camera, fiber-optic were used to connect it to the main computer.

Visit www.isu.cyberscoreboard.com to see comprehensive data on Short Track Speed Skating plus something extra for fans and athletes, the biography pages. Biographies can be found alongside easily navigated pages of World Rankings and Top 10 All Time Results at distance for men and women.

Nearly 250 athletes have individual biography pages on the site. Lynx has competition data from years past and this is the basis of each athlete’s page. Athletes can submit personal information and images to flesh out their individual page.

Would you prefer to run the FinishLynx software in your native tongue? Lynx now supports Arabic, German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Swedish, Finnish and both Simple and Traditional Chinese.

From your Hardware Control window, choose File: Options: General: Language Files. Select the preferred language. The changes will take effect when you reopen FinishLynx. Whether Fichier: Nouveau, Arkiv: Nytt or File: New, you are ready for the race; where ever you may be.

What can you do if your language isn’t listed? Simply create your own language file. Follow instructions detailed at http://www.finishlynx.com/support/technotes/language_files.htm. Esa Lappen of Finland took up the cause, creating a language file and translating the Lynx Manual into Suomi. His efforts were rewarded with much appreciation and quality Lynx schwag. Be sure to check out the Toolbar in "FinnishLynx" below.

Are you aware of what occurs when you Shift + Click when evaluating a Lynx image? The Lynx software will reveal a drop down menu containing data on all unevaluated athletes.

FinishLynx will pull athlete information from the .evt file into the Results Field. The software will then pull Lane and Affiliation data into the drop down. After a competitor is evaluated and results entered into the Results Field, that same competitor will no longer be seen in the drop down menu when you move to evaluate the next athlete.

Maurice Green recently tied his own WR and AR time of 6.39 seconds for 60m Indoors. He last ran the time in Madrid in 1998.

The Lynx software engineers have added some new features that we believe the users will benefit from and truly enjoy seeing in this latest version of the software. Why do we believe this? Lynx has incorporated user feedback from around the globe into 4.0.

With the coming release, you will find an updated version of the Manual on the web site. Look for it on the site or wait for an announcement by email. Do we have your current email address? Drop me your address at nora@finishlynx.com to stay informed.