My Reflections on last year: Part 2 - Judging Confusion

Many people have put forward various parts of the Worlds as the greatest judging stuff ups and while I agree with them I think I will highlight some crazy judging that took place in another championship. The vault of the Commonwealth games had some fairly funky judging which changed the results between the end of the competition and the podium ceremony.

Jennifer Khwela is the first South African to win a world cup. She has an amazing story. Being involved in the Commonwealth games must have been a thrill for her. Here are her vaults:

Khwela's landing positions were caught in the pictures below:

According to the judges in that particular meet, both vaults warranted a 0.10 neutral deduction.

The FIG rules, which are from the Gymnastics Coaching website, are shown below:

I would assume from the rules stated above that this meant the Khwela's vaults were deducted for being too close to the corridor.

Imogen Cairns did two rather awesome vaults which are in the video below.

Pictures of the landings are below. The first landing also originally had a 0.10 neutral deduction. The second did not. I do not see why this is the case. The first and second landings are roughly the same distance from the corridor. Cairns pulled her second vault in faster, but the rules say the initial contact is decisive, so if the first was penalised, the second should have been as well.

Gabby May did a great job of her vaults as well, but a number of steps on the second vault probably cost her a higher placing.

Here are the screen shots of May's landings, none of which got a neutral deduction. I think that if any of these vaults deserved a neutral deduction, the one on the right did. In fact, I am pretty sure her toe touches the line in the photo. To me, the judging in this meet was very inconsistent. I am not sure if the judges knew when to take neutral deductions.

Kristin Klarenbach did not get any neutral deductions, and I don't think she should have. Her vaults are in the video below. They are high, with beautiful form and good distance. I thoroughly enjoyed watching them. Unfortunately, her difficulty scores were not as high as the three ladies shown above.

Originally, the scores looked roughly like this:

Name	Rank	Country	Vault	D score	E score	Penalty	Total score	Overall score
CAIRNS Imogen	1	ENG	1	5.3	8.85	0.1	14.05	13.73
			2	4.8	8.6		13.4
MAY G.	2	CAN	1	5	8.78		13.78	13.71
			2	5.2	8.45		13.65
KLARENBACH K.	3	CAN	1	5	8.83		13.83	13.64
			2	4.7	8.75		13.45
KHWELA J.	4	RSA	1	5	8.7	0.1	13.6	13.64
			2	5	8.78	0.1	13.68

Obviously, Khwela and Klarenbach had the same score, but since Klarenbach had a better execution score, I guess the tie went her way.

But Khwela contested the scores, and they were changed. In the end, no-one in the top four had any neutral deductions, which implies that the judges made mistakes with Cairns as well as Khwela in the first instance. Yet Tracie Ang whose first landing was almost the same as Khwela, continued to have a neutral deduction of 0.1. I guess the figured that keeping her neutral deduction would not affect the final outcome, so they kept it.

Name	Rank	Country	Vault	D score	E score	Penalty	Total score	Overall score
CAIRNS Imogen	1	ENG	1	5.3	8.85		14.15	13.78
			2	4.8	8.6		13.4
KHWELA J.	2	RSA	1	5	8.7		13.7	13.74
			2	5	8.78		13.78
MAY G.	3	CAN	1	5	8.78		13.78	13.71
			2	5.2	8.45		13.65
KLARENBACH K.	4	CAN	1	5	8.83		13.83	13.64
			2	4.7	8.75		13.45

I cannot help feeling sorry for Klarenbach. She thought she had won a medal, and then suddenly, she was in the dreaded position of 4th place. Klarenbach did not participate in the floor later that day. Was it related to the vault drama? Possibly. I hope that Klarenbach does NCCA. I think any team would be lucky to have her.

Obviously, the confusion around these deductions was an issue at the Commonwealths, and at the Worlds as well. I am not sure that it is fair to blame the judges. They had different interpretations of the rule, but I can see why this confusion exists. I think that it is up to FIG to provide pictures and examples to make sure the judges make the right decisions first time without any of this confusion. Or even change the wording to "on the line" as Rick suggests. This is more fair on the gymnasts, and coaches and the fans.