In the Olympic program there are three different distances for hurdles: 100 Meters, 110 Meters and 400 Meters. While the 400 Meters exist for both men and women, the 100 Meter races are exclusively carried out by women and the 110 Meters by men. The reason for this standardization is the different average heights and lengths of strides for men and women.
Hurdle races are very challenging due to many different aspects of the race: It requires agility as the athlete has to conquer the hurdle efficiently, fast reflexes in order to time the jumps perfectly and great power to endure the strain the whole run puts on your body.
100 Meter Hurdles
At the 100 Meters the athletes will start explosively and their reaction times are measured by sensors on the starting blocks. If they start earlier than 0.1 seconds after the starting pistol they will be disqualified. The first steps until the first hurdle are very powerful and quick to generate velocity and to get into a rhythm for the rest of the race. When clearing a hurdle, the athlete straightens the leg that conquers the hurdle first and bends the leg behind him to surpass the hurdle. The goal is to minimize the airtime and to achieve a constant stride pattern. If a hurdle is knocked down, there is no penalty or disqualification if it’s not done deliberately. The height of the hurdles is 83.3 centimeters and shorter than the men’s because of the height differences. In addition, the distance of the starting block to the first hurdle is 13 meters and the distance between each hurdle is about 8.5 meters, while the last hurdle is 10.5 meters away from the finish line. The Hurdle Races actually originate from England where wooden barriers were placed along a 100-yard stretch in the 1830s and the current format was introduced to the Olympic program in 1972. The World Record for the 100 meter hurdles was made in the Tokyo Olympics in 12.26 seconds by Jasmin Camacho-Quinn from Puerto Rico.
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110 Meter Hurdles
For the Men’s hurdles the procedure and the technique are generally the same. What changes is the height of a hurdle and the distance between each. In 1864, the universities of Oxford and Cambridge wanted to standardize the sport and agreed on the height of 106.7cm. The distance to the first hurdle is 13.72 meters and from the last hurdle to the finish line the athlete has to sprint 14.02 Meters and the distance between each is 9.14 meters. The French actually established the length of 110 Meters in1888 and since the 1896 Olympics the discipline has been part of the program. The fastest 110 Meter Hurdles athlete of all time is Aries Merritt as he ran the race in 2012 in 12.80 seconds. The most dominating Country in this discipline has always been the USA, collecting 18 gold medals.
400 Meter Hurdles
The 400 Meters are even harder and require even more perfection and concentration to win. Due to the higher distance of the race, much more lactic acid will be built up which will cause the athlete to feel heavy and cause them to be more tired towards the end of the race. This will result in the athlete slowing down at the final meters of the sprint and it will be more likely that the athlete will knock over hurdles. For the men‘s the height of the hurdles is 91.4cm and for the women‘s it‘s 76.2cm. Concerning the distance, the hurdles have 35 meters between each other and the first hurdle is 45 meters away from the starting line while the last hurdle is 40 meters away from the finish line with 10 hurdles in total. In the men’s leaderboard, Norwegian athlete Karsten Warholm stays at the top since the Olypmic Games in Tokyo with a time of 45.94. For the women, it’s Sydney Mc-Laughlin-Levrone from the US with 50.37 seconds and she set a total of six world records in the event.
https://worldathletics.org/disciplines/hurdles/400-metres-hurdles
