During the weekend of 21 -23 October 2022, the vaulting world turned its focus on to the Annual in-person Seminar in Rome, Italy. The FEI Vaulting Technical Committee also shared with the participants the outcomes of the Testing of the Free Test Concept. The Free Test Concept working group presented a reworked concept based on the feedback from the Testing phase. The working group will continue on the project, and another test will be conducted in 2023.

On Tuesday 17 May, the final online meeting of the Free test concept Testing took place to evaluate the testing phase and the system.

The Chair went through her presentation that included all steps on how the testing phase had been structured and the different feedback received during this testing phase. She thanked the Judges for their dedication, their time and engagement to this project.

During this meeting, the Judges involved in the process, had the opportunity to share their point of view and their recommendations with the FEI Vaulting Technical Committee.

In summary, the Judges recommendation to the FEI Vaulting Technical Committee was not to implement the new concept. The main rational behind the recommendation were as follows:

• The proposed system is difficult to implement for Squads and Pas-de-Deux
• As proposed today, the system could work for Individuals in CVI3* only
• In general, the concern of the Judges was that in the proposed system, judging the Artistic score would become overly systematic with too many boxes to tick. Whilst the general idea is supported, all agreed that further review and testing was still needed.

The Chair thanked the Artistic working group for their time and efforts spent on the project. The testing group will look into a new/revised version of the concept in the near future.

The Chair closed the meeting by saying that all their feedback would be discussed with the FEI Vaulting Technical Committee.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact the FEI Vaulting department.