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Repechage (French, pronounced re-pe-shage, literally re-fishing) is a practice amongst ladder competitions that allows participants that failed to meet qualifying standards by a small margin to continue to the next round.
In track athletics, automatic qualification for the next round is given to the best competitors in each heat. Other competitors with the best times may also qualify for the next round indirectly as "fastest losers" as a result of the repecharge. If a particular heat was significantly faster than the others, the repechage spots can be all taken by athletes from that heat.
In field athletics, automatic qualification for the next round depends on meeting or surpassing a specified minimum result. The remaining qualification spots (if any) are given in order to the best results.
In the 24-team version of the FIFA World Cup, the best four teams in third place progressed to the knockout stage.
Repechage is also used in rowing. Often only the first one or two boats in a race will qualify automatically for the next round, and all of the other boats must race again in one or more special heats (known as the repecharge) to qualify.
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