The term 'photo finish' is popularly used in which sport?

A "photo finish" is a very close finish in a race, in which two or more competitors cross the finish line at almost the same time, so that the winner can only be decided by examining a photograph or image of the finish. The term is used mainly in athletics (track events) and also in horse racing, cycling, swimming, rowing and motor racing.

How a photo finish works:

A special camera, called a slit camera or line-scan camera, is placed exactly in line with the finish line.

Instead of taking a normal picture, it records a very thin strip of the finish line thousands of times per second. These strips are combined into a single image that shows when each part of each competitor crossed the line.

In athletics, the finish is decided by when the athlete's torso (the trunk of the body, not the head, arms, hands, legs or feet) reaches the vertical plane of the nearer edge of the finish line.

The image is linked to an electronic timer, which gives results to a thousandth of a second (though official times are usually rounded to hundredths).

Famous close finishes:

At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Noah Lyles of the USA won the men's 100 m by just 0.005 seconds over Kishane Thompson of Jamaica, decided by a photo finish.

At the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, India's P. T. Usha missed a bronze medal in the 400 m hurdles by 1/100th of a second, which was decided by the photo finish.

Other sports terms (useful for exams):

• Dead heat: when two competitors finish at exactly the same time and cannot be separated.
• False start: starting a race before the starting signal.
• Relay baton, hurdle, steeplechase: other athletics terms.

Why not the other options?

• ✗Cricket uses terms such as "googly", "yorker" and "LBW".
• ✗Chess uses terms such as "checkmate" and "castling".
• ✗Golf uses terms such as "birdie", "bogey" and "eagle".