Gymnastics debates dropping perfect 10 | Canterbury Sport | Surfing, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Cricket in Canterbury

Imagine cricket without hat-tricks? Golf without holes-in-one?

However, gymnastics is considering discarding its own grail ? and gymnasts are up in arms about it.

At risk is the perfect 10 score, first achieved by Nadia Comaneci at the 1976 Montreal Olympics.

Because of the controversial errors in the men's judging at the Athens Olympics, FIG, the sport's world body, is considering changing the way routines are evaluated, with an open-ended difficulty level instead of the maximum of 10.

Gymnasts can vote on the proposal on FIG's website -- and Kiwis are rushing to show they do give a FIG.

Christchurch international judge Avril Enslow, who has officiated at three Olympic games, is strongly against discarding the 10 and she urges others in the sport to show they care.

"I don't think it should go," she said. "We don't have records like the 100m sprint for example, and it's important to have something everyone understands."

The call for change was only because of the men's mistakes in Athens, she pointed out. The men's judges needed to follow the rules and regulations, and the alternative code was far too complex.

When she judged at her first world championship in Budapest in 1983, Enslow and several other judges scored an East German and an American 10 in the optional bar routine.

Now she's hoping democracy in action will let her sport's elite competitors still have a chance of the perfect score in future.