Maryam Abrishamforoushan Asl – Iran’s trailblazing photo finish judge

In a room on the third floor of the Japan National Stadium, Maryam Abrishamforoushan Asl stands holding a clipboard, positioned for the women’s 5000m heats alongside the chief photo finish judge, national judges and the technical timing team. Their eyes are fixed on the finish line, with the ambient evening lights beaming as the stadium roars.

The room – one of the most important at the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25 – offers the clearest view of the finish line. It is the time management and operations room, operated by Seiko – the centre of accuracy, precision, integrity and transparency. It is where every second, every millisecond, matters.

“For the women’s 5000m heats, I was responsible for watching the finish and writing down bib numbers to help the national photo finish judges identify each athlete,” Abrishamforoushan explained.

“I learned how operators work and how control tests are done by the international judge. It was good to see how professional they are. It is a big competition – an adventure I enjoyed learning.”

Inaugural mentorship programme

Abrishamforoushan is Iran’s chief photo finish judge and the sole participant selected for the World Athletics mentoring programme in Tokyo.

“This is the first time that we have had a mentoring programme at a senior global competition in photo finish,” explained Janet Nixon, a highly experienced international photo finish judge and Abrishamforoushan’s mentor. “There are typically very few opportunities to be involved in photo finish at a global level.”

Abrishamforoushan, who had experience at national and continental level having officiated at Asian indoor competitions, explained: “Photo finish in Iran is mostly done by timing service providers. We have many good judges and referees in Iran, very knowledgeable ones, but not many have the experience of working with the photo finish system.”

At each global athletics competition, only one international photo finish judge is appointed. At the previous World Athletics Championships in Budapest in 2023 it was Hungarian Krisztina Horvath, while in Tokyo it was Nixon, who was first appointed as an international judge in 2004 for the Athens Olympic Games.

“Normally there is one judge from the host country,” Nixon explained. "Photo finish officials from countries which are not able to host a major competition do not normally get opportunities to be involved."

As the only female photo finish judge from her country, 41-year-old Abrishamforoushan is altering the landscape of photo finish judging in Iran and she has been working to recruit new officials.

She arrived in Tokyo with ambition and an open mind, ready to learn.

“I needed to improve myself, being more knowledgeable to establish credibility,” she said. "That is why I applied for this mentoring opportunity. I have learnt from the best World Athletics gold referees."

Nixon added: “When given opportunities, female technical officials can rise to the highest standards of performance. This applies to all aspects of technical officials – on the field, the track, or behind the scenes in photo finish and competition management.”

Improving the standards of technical officials through education is an ongoing priority for World Athletics.

“When the competition started, Maryam was able to observe and discuss the control tests prior to each session. She also supported the photo finish process of identifying athletes, a most important aspect of generating the results,” Nixon explained.

Abrishamforoushan relished the experience. “I saw some challenging pictures, there were challenging situations,” she explained. “I watched Ms Nixon resolve these issues. It was very good for me to watch and learn. The national photo finish judge makes the call, and the international judge makes that official.”

The World Athletics Championships was Abrishamforoushan’s first international competition – an ideal opportunity to experience the high standards expected of a photo finish team at a global event.

“I was fascinated by the maturity of the World Athletics gold referees and the technical delegates, because they were very calm, very experienced and knowledgeable,” she said. “They helped officials in a very kind manner to deliver the best. They were very professional, and they try to not put any stress on them.”

Abrishamforoushan gained insight into managing competition information flow and observing how an international photo finish judge coordinates with the competition director, start referee, track referee and video referee.

On the final day, she read several races under the guidance of Nixon.

“I was on the radio that technical delegates are talking through. I now know how the information is passed between them and how to manage the whole competition,” Abrishamforoushan said.

Explaining the thought behind this, Nixon added: “I have found that people taking on a senior role for the first time don't always know what to expect for colleague communication. This gave her a clear experience of the professionalism between the referees during competition.”

From track to judging

Abrishamforoushan’s path to becoming a photo finish judge began on the track. She was a 1500m and 3000m runner competing at national level and she also played volleyball.

“I had health issues, not serious, but I realised I didn’t want to pursue sports professionally anymore,” she said.

But her desire was to stay involved in the sport.

Fortunately, a timing service provider ran a course while recruiting new members for their operations team. After passing the course, Abrishamforoushan became a photo finish operator, then a judge.

Fifteen years later, she still stands in the stadium as a guardian of integrity and fairness, fully aware that her decisions impact people’s lives instantly and differently.

“I've seen athletes frustrated,” she said. “Once I saw an athlete crying because he felt the right decision wasn't made about his time, and that really moved me to be more careful.”

Journey to international experience

Abrishamforoushan’s route to Tokyo began last year at the Asian Photo Finish course, where she met Australian Nixon, who was serving as a lecturer.

“She had an inquisitive mind and was eager to learn. She was also enthusiastic about teaching others in her own country,” Nixon said. “She spoke English to a high level, which meant that she would be able to understand the communication within the photo finish room which was entirely in English. These attributes made her an ideal candidate for the first mentoring opportunity in photo finish at a World Athletics global competition.”

Abrishamforoushan was inspired by Nixon.

“She is very knowledgeable and very confident, with very good managing skills,” she said. “I aspire to be like her. It is wonderful that she tries to pass her knowledge and experience. I want to do the same.”

Where technology and sport collide

As a software engineer, Abrishamforoushan has a deep passion for technology.

“Software engineering is about finding solutions. Photo finish is the place where sport and technology meet,” she said. “It's very interesting for me to see the most recent technology used in sports that I love. It is always a new adventure. I love it. You should keep up with technology; there's always something new.”

With her interest in technology, Abrishamforoushan accompanied international referees in the video referee room, at the Start Information System (SIS) and with Video Distance Measuring (VDM) for horizontal jumps.

“I understand how perfectly cameras should be aligned, because we need very accurate pictures. It's not one of those mistakes you want to live with,” observed Abrishamforoushan.

“At the same time, you need to get results out very fast because of the media. Seiko have dedicated line scan cameras which take images of the finish line at a rate of 10,000 lines per second.”

Paving the way for women and girls in Iran

The mother of three is paving the way for more women referees and young girls to take up the role.

“We don't have many female photo finish judges but many women as referees are doing their job well. My goal is to engage them in doing photo finish,” she said.

“And since I’m a woman, officials feel very comfortable to come and ask questions. More show interest in photo finish. I try to teach them and have more female judges. They really like it. They want to know what is going on behind the system and understand it more.”

Inspired to be the best

Although the Tokyo experience was somewhat intense, it only fuelled Abrishamforoushan to continue with the adventure and follow in the footsteps of Nixon.

“I got scared because I know she is doing a really good job. But you don't improve if you don't put pressure on yourself,” Abrishamforoushan said. “If I want to one day become an international photo finish judge, I need to be able to be as good.”

Nixon has already seen the great potential: “I am confident that Maryam will be able to take back her learnings to benefit her own country as she teaches others.”

With the World Athletics Championships now over – and with her first international experience behind her – Abrishamforoushan is back home, ready to build on these valuable lessons.

Michelle Katami for World Athletics