World Athletics introduced a Virtual Finish Line for the Ultimate Championship in Budapest. Developed with Sony and Host Broadcast Services, the system uses optical tracking data to reconstruct the final metres of a track race in three dimensions.
The processing target is under one minute, allowing the finished visualisation to be presented through the production workflow like a replay. A director can therefore show relative athlete positions from a viewpoint that was not occupied by a physical camera.
The reconstruction is an editorial explanation tool, not the official judging system. Photo-finish equipment remains authoritative for results, while the tracking-derived scene helps viewers understand close finishes and changes in position.
The partners are considering the method for other athletics disciplines. The report does not quantify spatial accuracy, frame rate, occlusion handling or the time distribution across capture, reconstruction and playout, so those limits should be made clear whenever the image is used editorially.
