Freelap vs Sprintbrick
Freelap and Sprintbrick both put the sensor on the athlete, so they differ in the hardware beside the track. Freelap needs a transmitter at every split; Sprintbrick needs one receiver behind the start.
How Freelap works
You wear a Freelap chip on your waist and set transmitters beside the lane. Each transmitter makes a detection zone about 1.5 m wide, and Freelap has you place it 80 cm past the mark you want timed. When the chip passes through a zone it stamps the time, and the Freelap app reads the splits over Bluetooth. You start the clock with a starting transmitter or by running through the first zone.
Freelap lists its timing accuracy at 0.02 s. That is the company's figure; we haven't seen an independent test.
How Sprintbrick works
You wear a sensor on your lower back and set one receiver about 2 m behind your start. The receiver measures the distance to the sensor 100 times a second. After each rep, the iPhone app turns that into your start, splits at 10, 20, 30 and 40 yards and every 10 m out to 100 m, your top speed and your fastest flying 10, 20 and 30 m.
We test Sprintbrick side by side with OVR gates. After the first 10 m, all 30 of its segments came within 50 ms of the gates. Times that include the start agree less well, and we're still working on that. The full results are on the OVR page.
Side by side
| Freelap | Sprintbrick | |
|---|---|---|
| Starter kit | Pro BT112, one chip and two transmitters: $535-659 at US dealers | $199 preorder |
| Splits | One per transmitter you place | Every 10 m to 100 m, plus 10, 20, 30 and 40 yd |
| Top speed | From the split between two transmitters | Peak speed and a speed curve for the whole rep |
| Setup | A transmitter at each measured mark | One receiver behind the start |
| Athletes | Add a chip per athlete | One wearer at a time |
| Course | Straights, bends, hills, any direction | Straight line away from the receiver, about 80 m |
| Accuracy | 0.02 s (Freelap's figure) | Within 50 ms of OVR gates after 10 m (our test) |
Freelap prices from On Track and Field, checked October 29, 2026.
Which to choose
For a squad, pick Freelap. Each athlete gets a chip, and the whole group runs through the same transmitters while each chip keeps its own times. Freelap also works on a bend, which matters if you coach 200 and 400 m runners. Sprintbrick only times straight runs away from its receiver.
Sprintbrick costs less, and every extra split comes free. With Freelap, a 10, 20, 30 and 40 m profile means four transmitters at four measured marks. Sprintbrick gives you all of those from one rep with nothing on the track, along with your speed at every point, so you see where you hit top speed and how long you hold it.