The 110 metres hurdles is a hurdling track and field event for men. It is included in the athletics programme at the Summer Olympic Games. The female counterpart is the 100 metres hurdles. As part of a racing event, ten hurdles of 1.067 metres (3.5 ft or 42 inches) in height are evenly spaced along a straight course of 110 metres. They are positioned so that they will fall over if bumped into by the runner. Fallen hurdles do not carry a fixed time penalty for the runners, but they have a significant pull-over weight which slows down the run. Like the 100 metres sprint, the 110 metres hurdles begins in the starting blocks.
For the 110 metre hurdles, the first hurdle is placed after a run-up of 13.72 metres (45 ft) from the starting line. The next nine hurdles are set at a distance of 9.14 metres (30 ft) from each other, and the home stretch from the last hurdle to the finish line is 14.02 metres (46 ft) long.
The Olympic Games have included the 110 metre hurdles in their program since 1896. The equivalent hurdles race for women was run over a course of 80 metres from 1932 through 1968. Starting with the 1972 Summer Olympics, the women's race was set at 100 metres. In the early 20th century, the race was often contested as 120 yard hurdles.
The fastest 110 metre hurdlers run the distance in a time of around 13 seconds. Dayron Robles of Cuba holds the current world record of 12.87 seconds, set on June 12, 2008, in the Czech Republic.
Contents |
For the first hurdles races in England around 1830, wooden barriers were placed along a stretch of 100 yards (91.44 m).
The first standards were attempted in 1864 in Oxford and Cambridge: The length of the course was set to 120 yards (109.7 m) and over its course, runners were required to clear ten 3 foot 6 inch (1.07 m) high hurdles. After the length of the course was rounded up to 110 metres in France in 1888, the standards were pretty much complete (except for Germany where 1 metre high hurdles were used until 1907).
The massively constructed hurdles of the early days were first replaced in 1895 with somewhat lighter T-shaped hurdles that runners were able to knock over. However, until 1935 runners were disqualified if they knocked down more than three hurdles, and records were only recognized if the runner had left all hurdles standing.
In 1935 the T-shaped hurdles were replaced by L-shaped ones that easily fall forward if bumped into and therefore reduce the risk of injury.
The current running style where the first hurdle is taken on the run with the upper body lowered instead of being jumped over and with three steps each between the hurdles was first used by the 1900 Olympic champion, Alvin Kraenzlein.
The 110 metre hurdles have been an Olympic discipline since 1896. Women ran it occasionally in the 1920s but it never became generally accepted. From 1926 on, women have only run the 80 metre hurdles which was increased to 100 metres starting in 1961 on a trial basis and in 1969 in official competition.
In 1900 and 1904, the Olympics also included a 200 metre hurdles race, and the IAAF recognized world records for the 200 metre hurdles until 1960.
Updated July 2010
| Rank | Time | Wind (m/s) | Athlete | Date | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 12.87 | +0.9 | Dayron Robles (CUB) | June 12, 2008 | Ostrava |
| 2 | 12.88 | +1.1 | Liu Xiang (CHN) | July 11, 2006 | Lausanne |
| 3 | 12.89 | +0.5 | David Oliver (USA) | July 16, 2010 | Paris |
| 4 | 12.90 | +1.1 | Dominique Arnold (USA) | July 11, 2006 | Lausanne |
| 5 | 12.91 | +0.5 | Colin Jackson (GBR) | August 20, 1993 | Stuttgart |
| 6 | 12.92 | −0.1 | Roger Kingdom (USA) | August 16, 1989 | Zürich |
| +0.9 | Allen Johnson (USA) | June 23, 1996 | Atlanta | ||
| 8 | 12.93 | −0.2 | Renaldo Nehemiah (USA) | August 19, 1981 | Zürich |
| 9 | 12.94 | +1.6 | Jack Pierce (USA) | June 22, 1996 | Atlanta |
| 10 | 12.95 | +1.5 | Terrence Trammell (USA) | June 2, 2007 | New York City |
Much of the content of this article comes from the equivalent German-language Wikipedia article (retrieved February 5, 2006).
For extensive Men's High Hurdles records, please see High Hurdle Stats
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||