The Countback Rule in High Jump and Pole Vault
- The countback rule used to separate competitors with equal best heights in High Jump and Pole Vault is
possibly the most misunderstood rule in the whole of the sport. Here's how it operates:
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- The athlete with the fewest attempts at the last height successfully cleared gets the verdict.
- This means that, no matter how poorly your earlier attempts have gone, there's still
a way back into the competition.
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- Then you count the athletes's number of failures, not including any attempts beyond the
height actually cleared: the athlete with the fewest gets the verdict.
- So you cannot harm your cause by trying for a height which you think it unlikely that
you will clear. But accurate jumping at the lower heights is vital!
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- (a third rule, counting the total number of successful clearances, no longer applies).
- From April 2010 the tie-break (which only ever happened if there was a tie for first place) has been
abolished for competitions under UKA Laws.