The high jump as run at a national school sports meet: a standing-bar field event where each athlete tries to clear a rising crossbar, entered in four separate fields for junior and senior boys and girls.
The high jump is a field event in which an athlete runs up on a curved approach, takes off from one foot and clears a horizontal crossbar resting on two uprights, landing on a soft mat. Unlike a sprint or a throw, the result is not the best of a few attempts at one distance: the bar is raised in stages, and the winner is the athlete who clears the greatest height.
At this national school meet the event is entered as four separate competitions: Junior (under 17) and Senior (under 19), boys and girls apart. The officials announce a starting height, and every athlete still in the competition may pass or attempt each height in turn. Missing a height three times in a row, whether at one height or across consecutive heights, ends that athlete's competition, and the highest height cleared stands as the result. A jump fails if the bar is knocked off the uprights or the athlete lands without clearing it.
An entry on the day is a student with a chest number, a place in the jumping order and a reporting time at the high-jump area. Because the field narrows as the bar rises, a big heat can run for a long time, so a coordinator normally schedules it as a parallel field event and keeps the starting height and bar increments agreed before the first jump. Results are recorded as a height in metres, which is the score label this template uses.
Organisers include the high jump because it rewards a different blend of qualities from the runners: spring in the take-off leg, a controlled curved approach and body awareness over the bar. In this template a Gold finish carries 5 bonus points, Silver 3 and Bronze 1, so one strong jumper adds directly to a school's total.
Where High Jump comes from
The high jump has been part of the Olympic programme since the first modern Games in 1896 for men, and the women's event was added in 1928.
Where High Jump is run
In eTalenter the item is carried by the national school sports and games template for Indian school-board affiliates, which lists 44 items across athletics, swimming, skating and team and individual sports. Beyond that, the high jump is a standard field event on school, club, district and national athletics programmes worldwide.
- India (national school sports meet for board-affiliated schools)
- Worldwide as a standard athletics field event
Key facts
- Individual event, no team entry
- Four separate fields: Junior (U-17) boys, Junior girls, Senior (U-19) boys, Senior girls
- Result is the greatest height cleared, recorded in metres on the Height (Meters) score label, not a judged mark
- The bar is raised in stages; three consecutive failures end an athlete's competition
- Medal points in this template: Gold 5, Silver 3, Bronze 1
- The template carries a placeholder 10-minute limit and 9-minute warning; a coordinator should replace these with a real jumping schedule
On eTalenter, High Jump is filed under Athletics and typically scored with Height (Meters). It appears in 1 ready-made event templates — each one can adjust its time limit, age-group assignment and scoring setup independently.
Across the templates that use it, High Jump is most often entered as an Individual competition, commonly run for Female, typically scored out of 100, commonly time-limited to around 10 minutes where a limit is set.
How it is scored
The scoring method the templates attach to this item, and what that scale means.
- Best score is
- the highest
- Decimal places
- 2
- Unit
- meters / centimeters
- Used for
- Sports
Where it sits
The category this competition is filed under when a template is installed.
Others in this category: 50m, 100m, 200m, Relay, Long Jump, High Jump, Shot Put, Javelin, Discus, Road Walking, Marathon
Judging criteria installed for it
eTalenter matches an item to its criteria on the words in its name, and creates exactly these when the template is installed.
No criteria match this name, so none are created automatically — judges score it on the event’s own criteria instead.
What judges look at in High Jump
What a High Jump panel is actually weighing up, and where the marks are usually won or lost:
- Height cleared: the only thing that earns rank is the greatest height an athlete clears cleanly, so a bar that stays on the uprights is the whole result
- Take-off and approach: a repeatable curved run-up that brings the take-off foot to the same spot each time decides whether the body arrives at the bar at the right angle
- Clean clearance: knocking the bar off with the legs, trail foot or arms makes the attempt a fail, so bar awareness matters as much as power
- Attempt discipline: three consecutive failures end the competition, so passing a height wisely and not wasting attempts at low heights keeps an athlete in the contest
- Ties: when two athletes clear the same best height, officials separate them by the fewest failures at that height and then the fewest across the whole competition, so every miss should be recorded accurately
Treat these as the judging focus, not a fixed rubric: publish your own weighted criteria for High Jump under Scoring Setup, or start from how judging, scoring and tabulation work on eTalenter.
How to prepare for High Jump
How entrants and their teachers usually get High Jump right on the day:
- Mark out the approach with tape and measure the run-up, so the same stride count and curve are used for every jump in training
- Find the take-off spot first by jumping at a low bar, then raise the bar only once the take-off foot lands in the same place each time
- Build spring with bounding, skipping and single-leg hops rather than only jumping at the bar
- Practise the arch over the bar and the landing on the mat with a safe, soft landing area, never on a hard surface
- Teachers should log each candidate's best cleared height before selection, so team places rest on measured results
- On the day, ask the officials for the starting height and bar increments, walk the approach and take a warm-up jump before the first attempt, and decide in advance at which height to start jumping
Events that run this (1)
Ready-made templates that already include this competition. Installing one sets it up for you.
Frequently asked questions
Is High Jump judged individually or as a team?
Across eTalenter's templates it's most often run as an Individual entry, commonly for Female, though an organiser can set either participation type when assigning the item to an age group.
Is the high jump judged by a panel?
No. The result is the greatest height cleared. On eTalenter the coordinator records that height against the entry and rank follows from the highest to the lowest.
How many attempts does an athlete get at each height?
Under the usual athletics rules an athlete may have up to three attempts at a height, and three consecutive failures end the competition. A coordinator should confirm the exact rule the meet uses before the first jump.
What happens when two athletes clear the same height?
The usual tie rule gives the higher rank to the athlete with fewer failures at the tied height, and then fewer failures across the whole competition. The meet's rules document is the final word.
Is the high jump the same as the long jump?
No. The long jump measures the distance of a single jump into a sand pit. The high jump measures the height of a bar that the athlete has to clear, and the two are separate items in this template.
Do boys and girls jump together?
No. In this template boys and girls are separate entries within both the Junior and Senior categories, giving four competitions in total.
Want the full judging picture? Read how judging, scoring and tabulation work on eTalenter, or browse every athletics competition item.
Try High Jump in eTalenter
See every ready-made template that runs High Jump, and install one as a live event — age groups, rules and scoring included.
