RUMFORD — Nordic racers weren’t the only ones hoping for fast race times during the U.S. Cross-Country Championships at Black Mountain of Maine this week.
John Bernard, of Rumford, a retired Mountain Valley athletic director, helped to design an application to be used with smartphones to deliver live racing results for the event.
Bernard said he has been working on Web pages and the Chisholm Ski Club website for the past 10 years. He also said he runs the U.S. National Cross-Country website.
“I’ve been doing the website work for about 10 years,” he said. “I combine that with photography so I consider myself self-employed, not retired.”
Bernard said he had been noticing a bar code application being used through stores for sometime and after purchasing a new computer he ventured into the online Apple app store to learn more.
“I saw the bar code app and I downloaded it and played around with it,” he said. “I thought, what a great idea to download the app and have racers be able to get race results easier and faster than before.”
The bar codes, or QR bar code reader as found in the Apple app store, was added to Chisholm Ski Club’s website.
“It is considered live timing and the page will refresh every 20 seconds,” Bernard said.
Those interested in getting race results simply download the application to their smartphones and scan the bar code for each race.
Bernard said it allows racers and spectators to get results faster than waiting for them to be posted outside of the Black Mountain lodge.
David McPhetres, a parent of three racers from Anchorage, Alaska, said it was the first time he had seen the app used for racing.
“I’ve seen it used for other scan opportunities,” he said. “I’ve even seen it at Dairy Queen. This was pretty slick cause it worked really well.”
McPhetres said he was inside using the application on his iPad and he drew a crowd around his table.
“I even helped a lady with her smartphone and showed her how to use it,” he said.
In good old Maine fashion Bernard added a line at the bottom of the bar code page saying “Wicked smart codes, don’tcha think.”
The crowd of U.S. Cross-Country Championship competitors and fans from across the nation seemed to agree with Bernard.
Brain Gregg, a racer with CXC Elite Team who lives in Minneapolis, Minn., said he thought the idea was unique and hoped to take advantage of it during the races.
-
- Winners, from left, Caitlin Gregg, second place, Jessie Diggins, first place, and Jennie Bender, third place, all from CXC Elite Team, stand on a podium after being presented with awards Tuesday for the Women’s Heat at the U.S. Cross-Country Championships held at Black Mountain of Maine. Racers and spectators were able to get live racing results by using a smartphone bar code app, a feature that was thought up by John Bernard, of Rumford, who runs the Chisholm Ski Club’s website.
-
- John Bernard, who helps run the Chisholm Ski Club website, helped create a new way to receive live race results for the U.S. Cross-Country Championships held at Black Mountain of Maine from Jan. 2-8. Bernard had learned about a Apple app that allowed smartphones to scan bar codes for stores and used the application in a unique way. Racers and spectators simply had to scan the corresponding bar code with their smartphones to get instant updates on race results.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.