RaceGorilla is a powerful sport timing platform with many different possibilities. Setting up a competition with all these facets can be daunting. At the same time, here are five simple steps to get started.

1. Create a competition via the dashboard
2. Set events
3. Add participants
4. Add your timing team
5. Start timing

1. Create a competition

Create a competitions via the dashboard. Click this link to Create a competition and choose a sport and a specific format. When your sport isn’t listed choose ‘general’.
The formats create a pre-set competition in mass start or time trial start mode, but any setting can be altered afterwards.
The payment and upgrade options are integrated in the competition create form. If you just want to test the app, you can do so for free. You will get most of the feature of the app that will show you how things work, only limited to 10 participants.
The competition will become instantaneously available in the iOS and Android app as well.

2. Set Events

An event is a grouping of participants where the final result list will be based on, for example and age group, distance or gender (or a combination of those). After creating a competition, open it and go to ‘Events’ in the left sidebar menu. Then click the ‘Add Event’ button in the top right of the screen. An event has a ‘name’ and a ‘short name’. At least one event must exist in a competition.
An event can have an event number as well, to make it easier to sort and filter in the dashboard.

3. Add participants

Add participant via a form directly in the dashboard or upload using the file uploader. The following columns need to be at least present to upload a participant table: Start Number, First Name, Last Name, Event. Also the Event needs to match the exact name of the event as set in step 2.
More on uploading participants can be found in the add participants tutorial.

4. Add your timing team

When the competition is set-up and participants are added it’s time to invite members to the timing team. You can time a competition on your own, for example when using a mass start. For a time trial, at least two people are needed; one at the start and one at the finish. Go to ‘Team’ in the sidebar menu and add users to your competition through their email address. If they don’t have an account yet, you will be prompted to send them an invitation by email .
Detailed user role settings can be found under advanced permissions to increase the control over your team.
Note: It is very important to train your timing (or judging) assistants. Create a separate demo competition or a test category is your live competition. There are several assistant tutorials available for each user role.

5. Start timing

Grab your phone and start timing!
Download the RaceGorilla Pro app for IOS or Android. Use the same username and password as you used for entering the dashboard.
To have an optimal live timing experience, use at least two mobile phones to time start and finish simultaneously. Open the live results viewer at you computer to see the magic happening.