The 100 m hurdles are an Olympic track and field athletics discipline run by women (the male counterpart is the 110 metres hurdles). For the race ten hurdles of a height of 83.8 cm (2 feet 9 inches) are placed evenly spaced along a straight course of 100 metres. They are positioned so that they will fall over if bumped into by the runner. Fallen hurdles don't count against runners so long as they don't run into them on purpose. Like the 100 metre sprint the 100 m hurdles is started out of the blocks.
For the 100 m hurdles 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 Olympic Games had included the 80 m hurdles in the program from 1932 to 1968. Starting with the 1972 Summer Olympics the women's race was lengthened to 100 m hurdles.
The fastest 100 m hurdlers run the distance in a time of around 12.5 seconds. The world record set by Yordanka Donkova stands at 12.21 seconds, the equivalent of 8.19 metres per second or 29.48 kilometres per hour.
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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 on only the 80 m distance was run. For the 80 m race women had to clear eight hurdles placed at a distance of 8 metres from each other and a height of 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.
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 wasn't 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 76.2 cm. During the 1968 Summer Olympics a decision was made to introduce the 100 m hurdles using hurdles with a height of 84 cm and the first international event in the 100 m hurdles occurred at the European Athletics Championships, which were won by Karin Balzer, GDR.
A summary of the 80 m hurdles as it compares to the 100 m hurdles:
| Distance | Number of hurdles |
Height | Distance made up of | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runup | Intervals | Home stretch | |||
| 80 m | 8 | 76.2 cm | 12 m | 8.0 m | 12.0 m |
| 100 m | 10 | 83.8 cm | 13 m | 8.5 m | 10.5 m |
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" (.915 m) hurdles. In the 60-69 age range, the spacings are changed. Women over age 40, men over age 70 run 80 metre versions with different heights and spacings.[1]
80 m hurdles:
100 m hurdles:
| Games | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1932 Los Angeles | Babe Didrikson (USA) | Evelyne Hall (USA) | Marjorie Clark (RSA) |
| 1936 Berlin | Trebisonda Valla (ITA) | Anni Steuer (GER) | Elizabeth Taylor (CAN) |
| 1948 London | Fanny Blankers-Koen (NED) | Maureen Gardner (GBR) | Shirley Strickland (AUS) |
| 1952 Helsinki | Shirley Strickland (AUS) | Maria Golubnichaya (URS) | Maria Sander (GER) |
| 1956 Melbourne | Shirley Strickland (AUS) | Gisela Köhler (EUA) | Norma Thrower (AUS) |
| 1960 Rome | Irina Press (URS) | Carole Quinton (GBR) | Gisela Birkemeyer (EUA) |
| 1964 Tokyo | Karin Balzer (EUA) | Teresa Ciepły (POL) | Pam Kilborn (AUS) |
| 1968 Mexico City | Maureen Caird (AUS) | Pam Kilborn (AUS) | Chi Cheng (ROC) |
| Time | Athlete | Nation | Date | Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12.21 s | Yordanka Donkova | Bulgaria | August 21, 1988 | Stara Zagora |
| 12.25 s | Ginka Zagorcheva | August 8, 1987 | Drama | |
| 12.26 s | Yordanka Donkova | September 7, 1986 | Ljubljana | |
| 12.29 s | August 17, 1986 | Cologne[1] | ||
| 12.34 s | August 17, 1986 | Cologne | ||
| 12.36 s | Grażyna Rabsztyn | Poland | June 12, 1980 | Warsaw |
| 12.48 s | June 18, 1979 | Warsaw | ||
| 12.48 s | June 10, 1978 | Fürth | ||
| 12.59 s | Annelie Ehrhardt | East Germany | September 8, 1972 | Munich |
| Time | Athlete | Nation | Date | Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12.3 s | Annelie Ehrhardt | East Germany | July 22, 1973 | Dresden |
| 12.5 s | Annelie Ehrhardt | East Germany | August 13, 1972 | Potsdam |
| 12.5 s | Pam Ryan | Australia | June 28, 1972 | Warsaw |
| 12.6 s | Karin Balzer | East Germany | July 31, 1971 | Berlin |
| 12.7 s | Karin Balzer | East Germany | July 25, 1971 | Berlin |
| 12.7 s | Karin Balzer | East Germany | July 26, 1970 | Berlin |
| 12.7 s | Teresa Sukniewicz | Poland | September 20, 1970 | Warsaw |
| 12.8 s | Chi Cheng | Chinese Taipei | July 12, 1970 | Munich |
| 12.8 s | Teresa Sukniewicz | Poland | June 20, 1970 | Warsaw |
| 12.9 s | Karin Balzer | East Germany | September 5, 1969 | Berlin |
| 13.0 s | Karin Balzer | East Germany | July 27, 1969 | Leipzig |
| 13.3 s | Karin Balzer | East Germany | June 20, 1969 | Warsaw |
| 13.3 s | Teresa Sukniewicz | Poland | June 20, 1969 | Warsaw |
In brackets: Wind in m/s
| Pos. | Time | Athlete | Country | Venue | Date | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 12.21 (+0.7) | Yordanka Donkova | Bulgaria | Stara Zagora | August 20, 1988 | |
| 2 | 12.25 (+1.4) | Ginka Zagorcheva | Bulgaria | Drama | August 8, 1987 | |
| 3 | 12.26 (+1.7) | Ludmila Engquist | Russia | Seville | June 6, 1992 | |
| 4 | 12.28 (+1.1) | Sally Pearson | Australia | Daegu | September 3, 2011 | [2] |
| 5 | 12.33 (−0.3) | Gail Devers | United States | Sacramento | July 23, 2000 | |
| 6 | 12.36 (+1.9) | Grażyna Rabsztyn | Poland | Warsaw | June 13, 1980 | |
| 7 | 12.37 (+1.5) | Joanna Hayes | United States | Athens | August 24, 2004 | |
| 8 | 12.39 (+1.5) | Vera Komisova | Soviet Union | Rome | August 5, 1980 | |
| 12.39 (+1.8) | Natalya Grigoryeva | Soviet Union | Kiev | July 11, 1991 | ||
| 10 | 12.42 (+1.8) | Bettine Jahn | East Germany | Berlin | June 8, 1983 | |
| 12.42 (+2.0) | Anjanette Kirkland | United States | Edmonton | August 11, 2001 |
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