A gate hit detection system for canoe slalom

Many sports now look to technology to resolve contentious decisions, for example in tennis, Gaelic games, snooker, association football, etc. However, the sport of canoe slalom, an Olympic sport, still relies completely on the subjective decision of a human judge, as to whether a competitor has touched a `gate´ or not. With the time difference between gold and bronze medals frequently being less than 2 secs, a single 2 second penalty has a significant impact and reliable, objective and repeatable judging is vital. This paper reports on a prototype slalom pole hit-detection system, which has been developed in consultation with the International Canoe Federation (ICF) Slalom Committee.