The 100 metres hurdles, or 100-meter hurdles, is a track and field event run mainly by women (the male counterpart is the 110 metres hurdles). For the race, ten hurdles of a height of 33 inches (83.8 cm) are placed along a straight course of 100 metres (109.36 yd). The first hurdle is placed after a run-up of 13 metres from the starting line. The next 9 hurdles are set at a distance of 8.5 metres from each other, and the home stretch from the last hurdle to the finish line is 10.5 metres long. The hurdles are set up so that they will fall over if bumped into by the runner, but weighted so this is disadvantageous. Fallen hurdles do not count against runners provided that they do not run into them on purpose. Like the 100 metres sprint, the 100 m hurdles begins with athletes in starting blocks.

Quick Facts Athletics, World records ...

Athletics 100 metres hurdles
A 100 m hurdles race at Atlanta 1996
World records
Women	Tobi Amusan 12.12 (2022)
Olympic records
Women	Jasmine Camacho-Quinn 12.26 (2021)
World Championship records
Women	Tobi Amusan 12.12 (2022)

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The fastest 100 m hurdlers run the distance in a time of around 12.5 seconds. The world record set by Tobi Amusan stands at 12.12 seconds.

The race started back in the 1830s in England where wooden barriers were placed along a 100-yard stretch. The hurdles event was included as part of the inaugural Women's World Games in 1922, and made its first appearance in the Olympic Games in 1932 as 80m hurdles.

Starting with the 1972 Summer Olympics, the women's race was lengthened to 100m hurdles.^[1]

The hurdles sprint race has been run by women since the beginning of women's athletics, just after the end of World War I. The distances and hurdle heights varied widely in the beginning. While the men had zeroed in on the 110 m hurdles, the International Women's Sport Federation had registered records for eight different disciplines by 1926 (60 yards/75 cm height, 60 yards/61 cm, 65 yards/75 cm, 83 yards/75 cm, 100 yards/75 cm, 100 yards/61 cm, 120 yards/75 cm, 110 metres/75 cm). At the first Women's World Games in 1922, a 100 m hurdles race was run.

From 1926 until 1968, the distance was 80 metres: women had to clear eight hurdles placed at a distance of 8 metres from each other and a height of 30 inches (76.2 cm).

Just like with the men's races, until 1935 no more than three hurdles could be knocked over, or the runner was disqualified, and records were only officially registered if the runner had cleared all her hurdles clean.

In 1935, this rule was abandoned, and L-shaped hurdles were introduced that fell over forward easily and greatly reduced the risk of injury to the runner. Hurdles are weighted, so when properly set for the height (for women, closer to the fulcrum of the "L"), they serve as a consistent disadvantage to making contact with the barrier.

The 80 m hurdles was on the list of women's sports demanded by the International Women's Sport Federation for the Olympic Summer Games in 1928, but was not included as an Olympic discipline until 1932. Starting with 1949, the 80 m hurdles was one of the disciplines included in the women's pentathlon.

During the 1960s, some experimental races were run over a distance of 100 metres using hurdles with a height of 30 inches (76.2 cm). During the 1968 Summer Olympics, a decision was made to introduce the 100 m hurdles from 1969, using hurdles with a height of 33 inches (83.8 cm).

The first international event in the 100 m hurdles occurred at the European Athletics Championships, which were won by Karin Balzer of the GDR.

The modern 100 m race has an extra two hurdles compared to the 80 m race, which are higher and spaced slightly further apart. The home stretch is shorter by 1.5 m.

Currently, women run 110 m hurdles at the World Athletics Relays, a mixed team event, which was instituted in 2019.

A version of the 100 metres hurdles is also used for 50- to 59-year-old men in Masters athletics. They run the same spacing as women, which coordinates with existing markings on most tracks, but run over 36-inch (0.914 m) hurdles. In the 60-69 age range, the spacings are changed. Women over age 40 and men over age 70 run 80 metre versions with different heights and spacings.^[2][3]

100 m hurdles:

• First official time registered with hurdles of reduced height of 30 inches (76.2 cm): Pamela Kilborn, AUS, 26 November 1961
• First official time with hurdles of standard height of 33 inches (83.8 cm): 15.1 seconds, Connie Pettersson, USA, 28 May 1966
• First official world record: 13.3 seconds, Karin Balzer, GDR, 20 June 1969
• First runner under 13 seconds: 12.9 seconds, Karin Balzer, GDR, 5 September 1969
• First runner under 12.5 seconds:
  • 12.3 seconds, Annelie Ehrhardt GDR, 20 July 1973 (last hand timed world record; electronically timed at 12.68 seconds)
  • 12.48 seconds, Grażyna Rabsztyn, POL, 10 June 1978
• First runner under 12.3 seconds: 12.29 seconds, Yordanka Donkova BUL, 17 August 1986
• First runner under 12.2 seconds: 12.12 seconds, Tobi Amusan NGR, 24 July 2022. 12.06 seconds (wind aided) Tobi Amusan NGR, 24 July 2022.
• First country to win gold, silver, and bronze in the women's 100 m hurdles in one Olympics: USA (Brianna Rollins, Nia Ali and Kristi Castlin), 2016; this was also the first time American women achieved such a sweep in any Olympic event^[4]

• Correct as of August 2023.^[5]

More information Ath.#, Perf.# ...

Ath.#	Perf.#	Time (s)	Wind (m/s)	Reaction (s)	Athlete	Nation	Date	Place	Ref.
1	1	12.12	+0.9	0.144	Tobi Amusan	Nigeria	24 July 2022	Eugene	[6][7]
2	2	12.20	+0.3	0.149	Kendra Harrison	United States	22 July 2016	London	[8]
3	3	12.21	+0.7		Yordanka Donkova	Bulgaria	20 August 1988	Stara Zagora
	4	12.24	+0.9		Donkova #2		28 August 1988	Stara Zagora
			+0.7		Harrison #2		28 May 2016	Eugene
			+0.1	0.155	Harrison #3		22 August 2023	Budapest	[9]
4	7	12.25	+1.4		Ginka Zagorcheva	Bulgaria	8 August 1987	Drama
	8	12.26	+1.5		Donkova #3		7 September 1986	Ljubljana
5	8	12.26	+1.7		Ludmila Narozhilenko	Russia	6 June 1992	Seville
			+1.2		Brianna Rollins	United States	22 June 2013	Des Moines	[10]
			−0.2	0.172	Jasmine Camacho-Quinn	Puerto Rico	1 August 2021	Tokyo	[11][12]
	12	12.27	−1.2		Donkova #4		28 August 1988	Stara Zagora
			+0.9	0.155	Harrison #4		24 July 2022	Eugene	[13][14]
			+0.1	0.166	Camacho-Quinn #2		2 September 2022	Brussels	[15][16]
	15	12.28	+1.8		Narozhilenko #2		11 July 1991	Kyiv
			+0.9		Narozhilenko #3		6 June 1992	Seville
8	15	12.28	+1.1	0.145	Sally Pearson	Australia	3 September 2011	Daegu	[17]
	15	12.28	+0.1	0.152	Harrison #5		4 July 2017	Székesfehérvár	[18]
	19	12.29	−0.4		Donkova #5		17 August 1986	Cologne
			−0.3	0.163	Amusan #2		8 September 2022	Zürich	[19][20]
	21	12.30	−0.2	0.126	Amusan #3		7 August 2022	Birmingham	[21]
9	21	12.30	+0.6	0.153	Nia Ali	United States	21 July 2023	Monaco	[22]
10	23	12.31	+0.3	0.143	Britany Anderson	Jamaica	24 July 2022	Eugene	[23][24]
	23	12.31	−0.2	0.158	Camacho-Quinn #3		27 May 2023	Los Angeles	[25]
		12.31	+0.6	0.165	Harrison #6		21 July 2023	Monaco	[26]
11		12.32	+0.8	0.119	Danielle Williams	Jamaica	20 July 2019	London	[27][28]
12		12.33	−0.3		Gail Devers	United States	23 July 2000	Sacramento
13		12.34	+1.9		Sharika Nelvis	United States	26 June 2015	Eugene	[29]
14		12.35	+0.9		Jasmin Stowers	United States	15 May 2015	Doha	[30]
			−1.4		Alaysha Johnson	United States	25 June 2022	Eugene	[31]
16		12.36	+1.9		Grażyna Rabsztyn	Poland	13 June 1980	Warsaw
			+2.0		Masai Russell	United States	1 April 2023	Austin	[32]
18		12.37	+1.5		Joanna Hayes	United States	24 August 2004	Athens
			−0.2		Dawn Harper	United States	7 August 2012	London
20		12.38	+0.1		Tia Jones	United States	2 September 2022	Brussels	[33]
21		12.39	+1.5		Vera Komisova	Soviet Union	5 August 1980	Rome
			+1.8		Nataliya Grygoryeva	Soviet Union	11 July 1991	Kyiv
23		12.40	+0.6		Janeek Brown	Jamaica	8 June 2019	Austin	[34]
			+0.4		Alia Armstrong	United States	13 May 2023	Baton Rouge	[35]
25		12.41	+0.5		Alina Talay	Belarus	31 May 2018	St. Pölten	[36]

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• Shirley Strickland (AUS): two Olympic victories, 1952 and 1956 in the 80 m hurdles.
• Ludmila Narozhilenko-Engquist (URS)/(RUS)/(SWE): Olympic victory, 1996, two World Championship victories, 1991 and 1997.
• Gail Devers (USA): three World Championships, 1993, 1995, 1999, as well as runner-up at the 1991 and 2001 World Championships.^[37]
• Sally Pearson (AUS): Olympic victory in 2012, as well as runner-up in 2008.^[38] World Championship victories in 2011 and 2017, as well as runner-up in 2013.^[39]
• Brianna Rollins (USA): Olympic victory in 2016, World Championships 2013.
• Danielle Williams (JAM): Two World Championships victories, 2015 and 2023.

• Women's 100 metres hurdles world record progression

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 100 m hurdles.

• IAAF list of 100-metres-hurdles records in XML