The Wimbledon Tennis Championships, which began last Monday and the Euro Soccer Championships, which reach a climax this week, have one thing in common.

Both tournaments have tried and tested protocols for deciding which team, or player wins when a game, or a set, ends in a tie.

In tennis a player has to win each game by two clear points and the game will continue until one player cracks.

If a set reaches six games each then a tiebreaker is used to separate the players. A player wins a tie-break by scoring a minimum of seven points and is two points ahead of his opponent.

In three of the four Grand Slam tournaments, Wimbledon, Australia, and France the tie-break is not used to separate the players in the final set. The US Open is different and if the final set reaches six games each, the tie-break system is used to separate the players.

These tie-breakers are not always cut and dried either. A tie-break between Samantha Stosur (Aus) and Maria Kirilenko (Rus) during last year’s US Open went to 32 points (17-15) before the Russian won the set. Stosur eventually went on to win the match.

James Van Alen devised the tennis tie-break in the 1960s. It was adopted by Wimbledon in 1971 and has been used ever since.

All soccer tournaments now use the penalty shootout do decide games that finish level but it was not always so.

The penalty shootout was not universally adopted until the 1970s. Before that, games in big European competitions were decided by the toss of a coin.

England may not have a great record in penalty shootouts but at least they can take solace in the fact that their fate is not decided by the opposing captain guessing which way a coin is going to fall.

One of the last big games to be decided by the flip of a coin was a second round European Cup tie between Glasgow Celtic and Benfica in 1969.

Celtic were brilliant in the first leg at Glasgow and travelled to Portugal with a 3-0 lead. Benfica played much better in the second leg and were level on aggregate at the end of 90 minutes. When 30 minutes of extra time failed to produce another goal.

A coin toss was used to settle the tie.

Both captains left the field and went with the referee to his dressing room where the toss was conducted in private. Can you imagine the scene when the Celtic captain re-immerged to tell his teammates that they were through to the next round?

How did they tell the packed stadium of Benfica supporters that the game was lost?

Celtic were not too happy either. They complained to the Eufa and the penalty shoot-out was introduced for all European ties soon after that.

The Americans are usually good a resolving tied games. They generally mix the ideas of overtime and sudden death. Victory goes to the first team to score in overtime.

The NFL abolished tied games and introduced sudden death overtime in 1974. The first team to score in overtime won the game. This was altered two seasons ago. Now, each team has to get at least one chance to be in possession of the ball during the overtime period.

Other American sports use variations of this. Basketball will keep playing periods of overtime until one side gets ahead. Baseball will keep playing extra innings. Golf will have single or multi-hole play-offs, depending on the tournament rules.

Americans do not like replays, so the general rule is keep playing until someone wins.

Perhaps this is why the American Track and Field Association got itself into a muddle last weekend at the track and field Olympic trials that are currently taking place in Eugene, Oregon.

For the first time in the history of the USA Olympic trials two runners in the women’s 100m tied for third place. This led to consternation in the aftermath of the race and it is still not resolved.

Under USA Track and Field rules the first three athletes past the post in the final trial get picked to represent the USA at the Olympics. This is a very crude model because if an athlete is injured and cannot compete they cannot go to the Olympics.

The USA can do this because the have such a wealth of athletic talent.

The women’s 100m competition was held last weekend. Carmelita Jeter finished first and Tianna Madison came in second. Jeter was the fastest woman in the world in 2009, and again in 2011. The story should have been about her chances of winning the Olympic gold medal; instead she and Tianna Madison have been almost forgotten.

Third place was “shared” between Allyson Felix and Jeneba Tarmoh. The cameras at the winning line at the Olympic trials can take 3,000 photographs in one second, but they could not pick a winner between the two.

Initially Tarmoh, who is the younger and lesser known of the two athletes, was declared the winner but that decision was reversed on further examination of the photographs.

Nobody knew what to do next.

After 24 hours of discussion the Track and Field Association announced that the athletes would be given a choice of a run-off or a coin toss.

They added that if agreement on the run-off cannot be reached, the coin toss will be used.

This is not going to be that easy to organise. Both women are entered in the 200m trials, which begin tomorrow (Thursday) with the finals on Saturday.

Both athletes also share the same coach, Bob Kersey. He has refused to get involved in the controversy saying “It would be like ‘Which kid do you love the most?’ ”

There is money involved too.

Both Felix and Tarmoh each have major sponsorships with Nike.

You can be sure that Nike has a nice bonus scheme for athletes who qualify for the Olympic Games.

Holding a run-off in athletics would be unprecedented in USA Olympic athletic trial history, but it is fairly common in other sports.

The irony is that should the tie have happened in the Olympic 100m final there is a precedent for awarding two bronze medals. This happened in the 1984 Los Angeles Games in the women’s 100m hurdles final.

The USA Track and Field Association are hoping that one or both athletes will qualify from the 200m trials (Felix considers this her best event).

If this happens it may take the sting out of the 100m fiasco.

It is likely that it will be well into next week before this controversy is settled.

And don’t be too surprised if there is a court case after that.Whatever the final outcome however, it can be truly said that Felix and Tarmoh were so well matched that there was only a toss of a coin between them!