ON YOUR MARKS: Progress was tracked by NFC wristbands at the TransLantau event

Athletes taking part in Hong Kong's TransLantau trail running event last weekend were issued with NFC wristbands that staff equipped with NFC phones could use to track their progress throughout the race.

"NFC is used to track runners along the course; it is the technology used to identify every single runner at every checkpoint and provide their split time and finish time," supplier Racematix explained to NFC World.

"When a runner is scanned at the checkpoint, information is sent to a server for real-time updates on the result web page and other notifications."

At the finish line, runners could also tap their own NFC phone to their wristband to check their results at racematix.com.

Safety information such as an emergency contact name and telephone number provided during the registration process was also encoded in the NFC wristband so it could be accessed instantly by the medical team if necessary.