The Honolulu Marathon Association today sued a Michigan company whose equipment failed to record the times of thousands of runners in the 2007 Honolulu Marathon.

SA Innovations was hired to provide the system to record the times of tens of thousands of runners. The system uses an electronic chip attached to each runner that records when each person crosses the start and finish lines.

Because the system failed, marathon officials had to review many hours of video to determine the finish times for all 23,299 Honolulu Marathon finishers, the lawsuit said.

In June the marathon association and SA Innovations reached a settlement agreement in which the company agreed to pay $20,000 by Sept. 8 and $10,000 by Dec. 1, the lawsuit said. But the company failed to pay, prompting the lawsuit.

It was the first time the Honolulu Marathon used that vendor. For the races from 2000 through 2006, the marathon successfully used the ChampionChip timing system, the lawsuit said.

Officials with SA Innovations could not be reached for comment.