FAI Hang Gliding and Paragliding Commission (CIVL)

Paragliding accuracy judges are in the middle of the action for the whole competition. Accuracy judging is not difficult in principle, but the judges need to understand the rules in depth and be able to answer questions why the rules are as they are. And of course the theory is not all, an accuracy judge must be able to make quick decisions based on what he/she saw. There is a reason why there is more than one judge at the target; all judges might not see everything. A category 1 judging team consists of 6 judges at the target.

Reading the rules for paragliding accuracy, the Section 7C and the other relevant documents such as Section 7 Common, often leads to even more questions. That is why it is necessary to attend a judging seminar at the beginning of one’s judging career (based on CIVL template).

According to Section 7 C:

• Judges are qualified to observe, mark and measure the performance of a competitor.
• Judges shall be of high integrity and must be capable of making fair and unbiased decisions.
• Judges must have a detailed knowledge of the General Section of the Sporting Code; of Section 7C including this Judging Code; the Local Regulations for the event they are judging and of other relevant documents published by FAI and CIVL.

Judges should record the events they judge in a logbook. They shall present their logbook to the Chief or Event Judge on request.

Who organizes training?

It is the NACs or the clubs within the NAC who should run national judging seminars, normally together with a paragliding accuracy competition. This gives the person who is interested, the means to learn to judge both in theory and in practice. These seminars are led by experienced judges from the same country or for example from a neighbouring country and they will follow the CIVL PGA judging seminar syllabus.

Teaching judging requires careful preparation and a considerable amount of clear and interesting training material. The CIVL PGA committee prepares material that can be used in both national seminars and international FAI category 1 seminars.  The attendees must participate in both theoretical and practical parts of the seminar and be approved by the seminar leader after the whole seminar.

National seminars lead to a possibility to judge at the national level and at category 2 events. The NACs can choose to organize a seminar for a certain group of persons or have a national seminar in co‑operation with another country/countries.

New countries wishing to start paragliding accuracy are encouraged to participate in a category 2 event to see the judging activities and if possible, attend a judging seminar. The CIVL PGA Committee can then be contacted to assist the NAC in question with judging training for example in a way to find the nearest experienced judge who can lead a seminar.

International category 1 seminars are organized with the help of the CIVL PGA committee. There is always a seminar in conjunction with a category 1 event and their pre-events. These seminars, given that the participant is approved by the seminar leader, give a right to act as a target judge at a category 1 competition. The other positions, Event Judge and Chief Judge, require more experience in practice.

National and Category 1 judges 

After a national seminar, the participant who has successfully completed both theoretical and practical training becomes a national judge. National judges can judge at cat 2 events, both in their own country and in other countries.

In category 1 competitions the judging team consists of category 1 judges. 

The NACs can nominate a national judge to become a category 1 judge to the CIVL PGA committee. The committee’s judging group evaluates the nomination and may then modify the list is of current category 1 judges. The list is then published on the CIVL PGA pages.

Link to Category 1 Judges list