I might try that. Currently I'm using OpenEmu, but the software has trouble recognising controllers connected through an adapter, so I might switch. What about the split timer?

Thanks so much for answering all my questions btw. I probably should've opened a new thread, though.

Ordered and received, but I'm having some trouble with it though. What kind of setup do you guys use for playing on an emulator? Which software and so on?

No idea if there are differences between the submitted runs in loading time, but there might be. I had no idea about the fast disc read speed-option. Tried it, and it lowered the time from 17-18 seconds to about 12. So there's still two seconds longer loading times for me than for the runs I've seen here. This seems to be because of the difference between PAL and NTSC, which supposedly is around 20% (source: https://speedrunwiki.com/NTSC). As the site points out, this results in an advantage because there's more time to react, which, in a game like TM2 could be influential. I'm now considering doing this via an emulator instead. Any tips for a device to connect a PS2 controller to a PC/Mac?

I'm considering to speedrun this game as I have played it since I was a kid. But I notice that loading times and the game itself is much faster in the videos I see of the records. Getting from the character select screen to being able to starting the first level takes about 17-18 seconds for me, while it takes roughly 10 seconds in the videoes I see posted here. There doesn't seem to be a difference between the runs made on PS2 and emulator. I'm playing on a PS2 Fat in PAL myself. Are you guys playing on a PS2 Slim or something?