RUNNING Peace Race can't afford to embrace high-tech ChampionChip

The budget is limited for the Youngstown fall race.
By JOHN KOVACH
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
YOUNGSTOWN -- Tom Bresko, a longtime member of the Peace Race Board of Directors and a former chairman, concedes that the ChampionChip is an excellent high-tech tool for timing races, but contends that the Peace Race can't afford it and doesn't need it.
"We would love to use it in a Peace Race, but it costs $1 more per person to use, so we have always opted out of it for cost and [because] our budget is limited," Bresko said. "Plus we are able to [time the race] without any difficulty and without any problems in time and accuracy the way we do it now."
Bresko said the Peace Race Board has discussed using the ChampionChip technology many times, always coming up with the same answer of rejection.
"We can't justify it. We have been fairly unanimous about this in previous meetings," Bresko said. "In the Peace Race, it just doesn't matter. There is nothing to be gained. People are going to run the 10K. They don't care if it is timed by a chip or without it."
Cost deciding factor
Asked if he thought a runner might not mind spending an extra buck to be part of such a high-tech advancement and progress and history, Bresko insisted that extra cost still was the deciding factor.
"Although it is an excellent system, it is something that the race doesn't need," Bresko said. "We have discussed this for a number of years. I think that it would be a wonderful thing. But with our limited budget, we have other priorities, always with the interest of the runners in mind."
The 30th annual Peace Race, which consists a 10-kilometer run and a 2-mile run-walk, will be held Oct. 24.
Rupe agrees
Ted Rupe, the Peace Race director who began doing the timing for the race in 2002 after succeeding Mart Courtney of the Runner's High Timing Service, agreed with Bresko.
"I have been entered as a runner in races using chips, but I personally don't use them. There are many advantages to [using them] in my mind, and a few disadvantages, primarily cost," said Rupe, who served as a co-director of the Peace Race with Courtney from 1990 until 2001 before becoming director.
"To use this technology for the Peace Race would divert funds from other areas that are probably more visible and necessary for the race."
kovach@vindy.com