100 metres hurdles

Cornelia Oschkenat (nearest camera), Heike Theele and Kerstin Knabe (1986)

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, November 26, 1961
• First official time with hurdles of standard height of 33 inches (83.8 cm): 15.1 seconds, Connie Pettersson, USA, May 28, 1966
• First official world record: 13.3 seconds, Karin Balzer, GDR, June 20, 1969
• First runner under 13 seconds: 12.9 seconds, Karin Balzer, GDR, September 5, 1969
• First runner under 12.5 seconds:
  • 12.3 seconds, Annelie Ehrhardt GDR, July 20, 1973 (last hand timed world record; electronically timed at 12.68 seconds)
  • 12.48 seconds, Grażyna Rabsztyn, POL, June 10, 1978
• First runner under 12.3 seconds: 12.29 seconds, Yordanka Donkova BUL, August 17, 1986
• First runner under 12.2 seconds: 12.12 seconds, Tobi Amusan NGR, July 24, 2022. 12.06 seconds (wind aided) Tobi Amusan NGR, July 24, 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 April 2023.[5]

Ath.#	Perf.#	Time (s)	Wind (m/s)	Athlete	Nation	Date	Place	Ref.
1	1	12.12	+0.9	Tobi Amusan	Nigeria	24 JUL 2022	Eugene	[6]
2	2	12.20	+0.3	Kendra Harrison	United States	22 JUL 2016	London	[7]
3	3	12.21	+0.7	Yordanka Donkova	Bulgaria	20 AUG 1988	Stara Zagora
	4	12.24	+0.9	Donkova #2		28 AUG 1988	Stara Zagora
			+0.7	Harrison #2		28 MAY 2016	Eugene
4	6	12.25	+1.4	Ginka Zagorcheva	Bulgaria	08 AUG 1987	Drama
	6	12.26	+1.5	Donkova #3		07 SEP 1986	Ljubljana
5	8	12.26	+1.7	Ludmila Narozhilenko	Russia	06 JUN 1992	Seville
			+1.2	Brianna Rollins	United States	22 JUN 2013	Des Moines	[8]
			−0.2	Jasmine Camacho-Quinn	Puerto Rico	01 AUG 2021	Tokyo	[9]
	11	12.27	−1.2	Donkova #4		28 AUG 1988	Stara Zagora
			+0.9	Harrison #3		24 JUL 2022	Eugene	[10]
			+0.1	Camacho-Quinn #2		02 SEP 2022	Brussels	[11]
	14	12.28	+1.8	Narozhilenko #2		11 JUL 1991	Kyiv
			+0.9	Narozhilenko #3		06 JUN 1992	Seville
8	14	12.28	+1.1	Sally Pearson	Australia	03 SEP 2011	Deagu	[12]
	14	12.28	+0.1	Harrison #4		04 JUL 2017	Székesfehérvár
	18	12.29	−0.4	Donkova #5		17 AUG 1986	Cologne
			−0.3	Amusan #2		08 SEP 2022	Zürich	[13]
	20	12.30	−0.2	Amusan #3		07 AUG 2022	Birmingham	[14]
9	21	12.31	+0.3	Britany Anderson	Jamaica	24 JUL 2022	Eugene	[15]
	22	12.32	+1.6	Narozhilenko #4		04 JUN 1992	Saint-Denis
10	22	12.32	+0.8	Danielle Williams	Jamaica	20 JUL 2019	London	[16]
	22	12.32	+1.7	Camacho-Quinn #3		17 APR 2021	Gainesville
			+0.3	Camacho-Quinn #4		24 JUL 2022	Eugene	[17]
11		12.33	−0.3	Gail Devers	United States	23 JUL 2000	Sacramento
12		12.34	+1.9	Sharika Nelvis	United States	26 JUN 2015	Eugene	[18]
			+0.3	Nia Ali	United States	06 OCT 2019	Doha	[19]
14		12.35	+0.9	Jasmin Stowers	United States	15 MAY 2015	Doha	[20]
			−1.4	Alaysha Johnson	United States	25 JUN 2022	Eugene	[21]
16		12.36	+1.9	Grażyna Rabsztyn	Poland	13 JUN 1980	Warsaw
			+2.0	Masai Russell	United States	01 APR 2023	Austin	[22]
18		12.37	+1.5	Joanna Hayes	United States	24 AUG 2004	Athens
			−0.2	Dawn Harper	United States	07 AUG 2012	London
20		12.38	+0.1	Tia Jones	United States	02 SEP 2022	Brussels	[23]
21		12.39	+1.5	Vera Komisova	Soviet Union	05 AUG 1980	Rome
			+1.8	Nataliya Grygoryeva	Soviet Union	11 JUL 1991	Kyiv
23		12.40	+0.6	Janeek Brown	Jamaica	08 JUN 2019	Austin	[24]
24		12.41	+0.5	Alina Talay	Belarus	31 MAY 2018	St. Pölten	[25]
25		12.42	+1.8	Bettine Jahn	East Germany	08 JUN 1983	Berlin
			+2.0	Anjanette Kirkland	United States	11 AUG 2001	Edmonton

• 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.[26]
• Sally Pearson (AUS): Olympic victory in 2012, as well as runner-up in 2008.[27] World Championship victories in 2011 and 2017, as well as runner-up in 2013.[28]
• Brianna Rollins (USA): Olympic victory in 2016, World Championships 2013.

• 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

Amusan ran 12.06 at the Oregon World Championships, but the time is unofficial, due to +2.5 wind

• Much of the content of this article comes from the equivalent German-language Wikipedia article (retrieved February 13, 2006).
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