400 METRE HURDLES

(Redirected from 400m hurdles)

The '400 m Hurdles' are an Olympic athletics (track and field) discipline. On a standard outdoor track 400 meters is the length of the inside lane once around the stadium. Runners stay in their lane the entire way after starting out of the blocks and must clear ten hurdles that are evenly, for each lane, spaced around the track. The hurdles are positioned so that they fall forward if bumped into to prevent injury to the runners. Although fallen hurdles don't count against them, runners like to clear them clean, as touching them during the race slows runners down.
The best male athletes can run the 400 m Hurdles in a time of around 47 seconds (WR: 46.78 seconds), which is the equivalent of 8.51 meters per second or 30.63 kilometers per hour. The best female athletes achieve a time of around 53 seconds (WR: 52.34 seconds), or 7.54 meters per second and 27.16 kilometers per hour. Compared to the 400 Meters the hurdles race takes the men about 3 seconds longer and the women 4 seconds longer.
The 400 m Hurdles have been an Olympic discipline since 1900 and 1984 for men and women, respectively.

Contents

History

Milestones

Most successful athletes

Medalists

Olympic Games

Men

Women

World Championships

Men

Women

History of world records

Men

Women

All-time top ten

Men

Women

See also

References

History

The first awards in a 400 m Hurdles race were given in 1860 when a race was held in Oxforn, England, over a course of 440 yards (approx. 402 meters). While running the course, participants had to clear 12 massive, more than 100cm tall, wooden hurdles that had been spaced in even intervals.
To reduce the risk of injury, somewhat more lightweight constructions were introduced in 1895 that runners could push over. But until 1935 runners were disqualified if they pushed over more than 3 hurdles in a race and records were only officially accepted if the runner in question had cleared all hurdles clean and left them all standing.
At the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris, France, the 400 m Hurdles became an Olympic event. At the same time, the race was standardized so that virtually identical races could be held and the finish times compared to each other. As a result, the official distance was fixed to 400 meters, or once around the stadium, and the number of hurdles was reduced to 10. The official height of the hurdles was set to 91.44 cm (3 feet) for men and, since 1974, to 76.20 cm (2-1/2 feet) for women. The hurdles were now placed on the course with a runup to the first hurdle of 45 meters, a distance between the hurdles of 35 meters each, and a home stretch from the last hurdle to the goal line of 40 meters.
The first documented 400 m Hurdles race for women took place in 1971.
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) introduced the event officially as a discipline in 1974, although it was not run at the World Championships and the first female World Champion was not determined until the 1983 World Championships.

Milestones

★ Men

★
★ First official IAAF world record: 55.0 seconds, Charles Bacon (USA), 1908

★
★ First under 54 seconds: 53.8 seconds, Sten Pettersson (SWE), 1925

★
★ First under 53 seconds: 52.6 seconds, John Gibson (USA), 1927

★
★ First under 52 seconds: 51.7 seconds, Bob Tisdall (IRL), 1932

★
★ First under 51 seconds: 50.6 seconds, Glenn Hardin (USA), 1934

★
★ First under 50 seconds: 49.5 seconds, Glenn Davis (USA), 1956

★
★ First under 49 seconds: 48.8 seconds, Geoff Vanderstock (USA), 1968

★
★ First under 48 seconds: 47.82 seconds, John Akii-Bua (UGA), 1972

★
★ First under 47 seconds: 46.78 seconds, Kevin Young (USA), 1992

★ Women

★
★ First official world record: 56.51 seconds, Krystyna Kacperczyk (POL), 1974

★
★ First under 56 seconds: 55.74 seconds, Tatjana Storoschewa (USSR), 1977

★
★ First under 55 seconds: 54.89 seconds, Tatjana Selenzowa (USSR), 1978

★
★ First under 54 seconds: 53.58 seconds, Margarita Ponomarjowa (USSR), 1984

★
★ First under 53 seconds: 52.94 seconds, Marina Stepanowa (USSR), 1986

Most successful athletes

★ 'Two Olympic victories':

★
★ Glenn Davis (USA), 1956 and 1960

★
★ Edwin Moses (USA), 1976 and 1984 (also Bronze in 1988)

★ 'Two World Championships':

★
★ Edwin Moses (USA), 1983 and 1987

★
★ Félix Sánchez (DOM), 2001 and 2003 (also Silver in 2007)

★
★ Nezha Bidouane (MAR), 1997 and 2001 (also Silver in 1999)

★
★ Jana Rawlinson (AUS), 2003 (as Jana Pittman) and 2007
'Most surprising rookie': Glenn Davis (USA), who ran his first race in April 1956 in 54.4 slow seconds. Two months later though, he ran a new world record with 49.5 seconds and later that year he won the 400 m Hurdles at the Olympics, and was also the first to repeat that feat in 1960.
'Athlete who wrote the book on 400 m Hurdles': The American Edwin Moses won 122 races in a row between 1977 and 1987 plus two Gold medals at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montréal, and the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. He was undefeated for exactly nine years nine months and nine days until he got a bronze medal in the 1988 Summer Olympics. The boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow prevented his Gold-hat-trick but his career is nonetheless widely regarded as simply astonishing. He held the world record continuously from when he first broke it at the Olympics on July 25, 1976 (twice in one day) until it was finally broken at the 1992 Summer Olympics.

Medalists

Olympic Games

Men

1900 Paris
1904 St. Louis
''1906 Athens''	''not included in the Olympic program''
1908 London
''1912 Stockholm''	''not included in the Olympic program''
1920 Antwerp
1924 Paris
1928 Amsterdam
1932 Los Angeles
1936 Berlin
1948 London
1952 Helsinki
1956 Melbourne
1960 Rome
1964 Tokyo
1968 Mexico City
1972 Munich
1976 Montreal
1980 Moscow
1984 Los Angeles
1988 Seoul
1992 Barcelona
1996 Atlanta
2000 Sydney
2004 Athens
2008 Beijing

Women

1984 Los Angeles
1988 Seoul
1992 Barcelona
1996 Atlanta
2000 Sydney
2004 Athens
2008 Beijing

World Championships

Men

1983
1987
1991
1993
1995
1997
1999
2001
2003
2005

Women

1980
1983
1987
1991
1993
1995
1997
1999
2001
2003
2005
2007

History of world records

Men

Time	Athlete	Nation	Date	Where
46.78 s	Kevin Young	USA	August 6 1992	Barcelona
47.02 s	Edwin Moses	USA	August 31 1983	Koblenz, FRG
47.13 s	Edwin Moses	USA	July 3 1980	Milan
47.45 s	Edwin Moses	USA	June 11 1977	Westwood
47.64 s	Edwin Moses	USA	July 25 1976	Montreal
47.82 s	John Akii-Bua	UGA	September 2 1972	Munich
48.12 s	David Hemery	GBR	October 15 1968	Mexico City
48.6+ s	Geoffrey Vanderstock	USA	September 11 1968	Echo Summit
49.1+ s	Warren Cawley	USA	September 13 1964	Los Angeles
49.2+ s	Salvatore Morale	ITA	September 14 1962	Belgrad
49.2+ s	Glenn Davis	USA	August 6 1958	Budapest
49.5+ s	Glenn Davis	USA	June 29 1956	Los Angeles
50.4+ s	Juri Litujew	URS	September 20 1953	Budapest
50.6+ s	Glenn Hardin	USA	July 26 1934	Stockholm
51.8+ s	Glenn Hardin	USA	June 30 1934	Milwaukee
52.0+ s	Glenn Hardin	USA	August 1 1932	Los Angeles
52.0+ s	Morgan Taylor	USA	July 4 1928	Philadelphia
52.6+ s	John Gibson	USA	July 2 1927	Lincoln
53.8+ s	Sten Pettersson	SWE	October 4 1925	Paris
54.2+ s	John Norton	USA	June 26 1920	Pasadena
54.0+ s	Frank Loomin	USA	August 16 1920	Antwerpen
55.0+ s	Charles Bacon	USA	July 22 1908	London

Women

Time	Athlete	Nation	Date	Where
52.34 s	Yuliya Pechonkina	RUS	August 8 2003	Tula
52.61 s	Kim Batten	USA	August 11 1995	Gothenburg
52.74 s	Sally Gunnell	GBR	August 19 1993	Stuttgart
52.94 s	Marina Stepanowa	URS	September 19 1986	Tashkent
53.32 s	Marina Stepanowa	URS	August 30 1986	Stuttgart
53.55 s	Sabine Busch	GDR	September 22 1985	Berlin
53.58 s	Margarita Ponomarewa	URS	June 22 1984	Kiev
54.02 s	Anna Ambrosiene	URS	June 11 1983	Moscow
54.28 s	Karin Roßley	GDR	May 17 1980	Jena
54.78 s	Marina Makejewa	URS	July 27 1979	Moscow
54.89 s	Tatjana Zelenzowa	URS	September 2 1978	Prague
55.31 s	Tatjana Zelenzowa	URS	August 19 1978	Podolsk
55.44 s	Krystyna Kacperczyk	POL	August 18 1978	Berlin
55.63 s	Karin Roßley	GDR	August 13 1977	Helsinki
55.74 s	Tatjana Storoshewa	URS	June 26 1977	Chemnitz
56.51 s	Krystyna Kacperczyk	POL	July 13 1974	Augsburg

All-time top ten

Men

Time	Athlete	Country	Venue	Date
46.78	Kevin Young		Barcelona	August 6 1992
47.02	Edwin Moses		Koblenz	August 31 1983
47.03	Bryan Bronson		New Orleans	June 21 1998
47.10	Samuel Matete		Zürich	August 7 1991
47.19	Andre Phillips		Seoul	September 25 1988
47.23	Amadou Dia Ba		Seoul	September 25 1988
47.24	Kerron Clement		Carson, CA	June 26 2005
47.25	Félix Sánchez		Paris, Saint-Denis	August 29 2003
47.30	Bershawn Jackson		Helsinki	August 9 2005
47.37	Stéphane Diagana		Lausanne	July 5 1995

Women

Time	Athlete	Country	Venue	Date
52.34	Yuliya Pechonkina		Tula	August 8 2003
52.61	Kim Batten		Gothenburg	August 11 1995
52.62	Tonja Buford-Bailey		Gothenburg	August 11 1995
52.74	Sally Gunnell		Stuttgart	August 19 1993
52.77	Fani Halkia		Athens	August 22 2004
52.79	Sandra Farmer-Patrick		Stuttgart	August 19 1993
52.82	Deon Hemmings		Atlanta	July 31 1996
52.89	Daimí Pernía		Sevilla	August 25 1999
52.90	Nezha Bidouane		Sevilla	25 August 1999
52.94	Marina Stepanova		Tashkent	September 17 1986

See also

★ Hurdles

References

Much of the content of this article comes from the equivalent German-language wikipedia article (retrieved February 4, 2006).