New judging system used at Open

The Broadmoor Open is the first non-qualifying competition in America to use the new International Judging System.

The IJS is being used at World Arena for the novice, junior and senior level events.

The IJS has been used in the international events for two years, but has not been implemented in the United States, until now, awaiting a vote from the National Skating Committee.

International judge and coauthor of the components for the IJS, Charlie Cyr said, "What this system does is put the elements back on the skaters. They are no longer given only two marks by each judge for the entire routine, but now they are given marks on each element in their routine."

The "old" system started the skaters' routines at a 6.0 and judges deducted points for faults. Now, technical elements have set values determined by the difficulty of the element. There is a panel of judges but there is also a technical panel consisting of a referee, a technical controller and a technical specialist. During the program the controller and the specialist will verify the element and determine the difficulty.

"It's come a long way," Cyr said. "Finally, we have a system where everyone has a chance to win. The best part of the system is now the judges are rating the performance as a whole and the best performance of the day will win."

The new system is not a di- rect effect of the 2002 Olympic debacle in Salt Lake City.

"The judging system was looked at after 1998 Nagano Olympics," Cyr claimed.

"The judges still have about 70 percent of control over the score compared to 100 percent in the old system. Now the technical controller and specialist are controlling the other 30 percent," national judge David Hamula said.

U.S. pairs national junior champions Mariel Miller and Rockne Brubaker, from The Broadmoor Skating Club, took first place in their senior pairs short program with a score of 49.87. They praised the new system.

"I like it a lot. It's a lot more precise," Brubaker said. "I like being given points instead of them taking them away."

Added Miller: "It's pretty good, still pretty rough. Even a skater with good ability and not the strongest technical ability can still do well with this system."

Teammates Tiffany Vise and Derek Trent, who finished second, weren't as excited about the new system.

"I don't know. We haven't competed under it yet," Trent said. "It takes some subjectivity away from the judges."

"The new system is more awarding and that is nice," Vice said. "At least it's heading in the right direction."

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