Breaking Ties in Track and Field
As a Cross Country and Track & Field platform, we know how important it is to coaches, parents and athletes that their places, marks, times and scores are accurate. That is why we have made it easy to break ties and identify finish places.
Importance of Breaking Ties
It is important to break ties, especially for scoring positions, when uploading results.
Tie breaking is often overlooked. With hand times, and different heats, you will have ties that cannot be broken. Likewise, especially in vertical events (high jump and pole vault) there will be unbreakable ties.
When you are inputting results and you have a tie that cannot be broken, you must remember to score the tied places with the same place and then skip the next athlete to the following placing.
This example shows INCORRECT placing after the tie...
Breaking Vertical Field Event Ties
- For championship or qualifying events especially, ties for 1st place that can't be broken by misses should be broken using a jump-off. Enter the mark that the tied competitors achieved and then update the placings as described below to identify the winner.
- Places other than first may tie, but you should first try to break all ties using the rule as follows:
- Number of misses at last height is the first tie breaker - less misses at last height places higher.
- If a tie still exists between two or more athletes, then the number of total misses (regardless of number of attempts) is the second tie breaker.
- If a tie still exists after the prior two rules are applied, then it is a tie.
This example shows a four-way tie at 6'6" that was broken by the judge (J) that was entering results in AthleticRUNMEET, but without entering Field Series.
Breaking Horizontal Field Event Ties
- Ties in horizontal jumps and all throws are broken by the competitor that has a better second-best mark. If a competitor does not have a legal second best mark, the competitor with a legal second-best mark would place higher.
- This example shows a two-way tie for 4th at 35'8.75" that was broken by the judge (J) that was entering results in AthleticRUNMEET, but without entering Field Series.
For all field events, if the final results are showing tied marks with different placings without a J (judge's decision), this indicates that the tie was broken within the meet management software before it was uploaded to AthleticNET, as in this example...
How to View a Field Series
- On the meet results page, click on a specific event you want to view. If the field series was entered you will see Field Series next to Results.
- On the results page, scroll down to the bottom and click Show All Results, you will see Field Series next to each event that had the field series entered.
- Click on Field Series in either scenario to view.
Breaking Running Event Ties
- FAT Results: The tie breaker is to the thousandth if a Fully Automatic Timing system (FAT) is in use. If they are still tied, then there is actually a tie. AthleticNET displays results in hundredths, but if an identical time is showing without a tie, it was broken to the thousandth in the timing system, as in this example...
- Hand-Timed Results: Runners are tied if they are tied to the tenth, unless it was a head to head race and the tie is broken by the event judges (J). It is not proper to use hundredths of a second as a tie breaker in a hand timed event as all times are to be rounded up to the next tenth, by rule.
