HURDLING

'Hurdling' In track and field athletics there are sprint hurdle races and long hurdle races. The standard sprint hurdle race is 110 metres for men and 100 metres for women. The standard long hurdle race is 400 metres for both men and women. Each of these races is run over ten hurdles and they are all Olympic events.
Other distances are sometimes run, particularly indoors. The sprint hurdle race indoors is usually 60 metres for both men and women, although races 55 meters or 50 metres long are sometimes run. A 60 metre indoor race is run over 5 hurdles. A shorter race may have only 4 hurdles. The long hurdle race is sometimes shortened to 300 metres or 200 metres, usually for indoor or high school races.
There are two basic hurdle heights: high hurdles and intermediate hurdles. The sprint hurdle races (60 m, 100 m and 110 m) use high hurdles, which are 42 inches (1.07 m) high (39 inches, or 0.99 m, in U.S. high school competition) for men and 33 inches (.84 m) high for women. Long hurdle races (400 m) use intermediate hurdles, which are 36 inches (.914 m) high for men and 30 inches (.762 m) high for women. Slightly lower heights (generally 3 inches lower) are sometimes used in youth or high school events.

Contents

High School Events

Set up

Technique

Steps

Hitting hurdles

Steeplechase

Shuttle hurdle

High School Events

High Schools generally have 3 hurdle races. The 110 metres high hurdles (boys), the 100 metre high hurdles (girls), and the 300 or 400 metre intermediate hurdles (boys and girls). The 110 metre high hurdles have a height of 39 inches, the 100 metre high hurdles have a height of 33, and the 300 or 400 metre intermediate hurdles have a height of 36 inches for boys and 30 inches for girls.

Set up

In sprint hurdle races for men, regardless of the length of the race, the first hurdle is 13.72 mts from the starting line and the distance between hurdles is 9.14 mts. In sprint hurdle races for women, the first hurdle is 13 mts from the starting line and the distance between hurdles is 8.5 m . In long hurdle events, whether for men or women, the first hurdle is 45 metres from the starting line and the distance between hurdles is 35 mts. Any race which is shorter than the standard distance is simply run over fewer hurdles; hurdle placement is the same as in the standard race.

Technique

There is a certain technique that is desirable to accomplish for a hurdler. Other racers may depend solely on their speed; however, if you have the "perfect form" you will do far better than someone that simply jumps over the hurdle. When approaching the hurdle, you want to stride out your steps so that you do not "stutter step" (a term used to refer to the cutting of your stride length before reaching a hurdle). You then attack the hurdle by pushing away from the ground with the back leg and leading with the knee. The goal is to minimise the deviation from normal running technique.
In mens hurdles it is usually neccessary to straighten the leg at the top of the flight path over the hurdle. As soon as the foot has cleared the hurdle, the knee starts bending again to lessen the effect of a long, slow pendulum. In womens hurdles, the lead leg stays bent and the center of gravity does not change path from a normal running stride. Another way to view it is the foot path: "shortest path up and shortest path down". The opposite arm reaches farther forward and the elbow travels out sideways to make room for the trailing leg. The trailing leg also leads with the knee, but the foot and knee is horisontal, tucked up as tight as possible.
As soon as the lead leg touches down, a strong downward push is exerted to enable the trailing leg's knee to come up under the armpit and in front of the chest. This enables recovery of some of the energy expanded in the flight.
Your lead leg depends on your personal preference. Some people do not know their lead leg so the best way to determine this is to have somebody push you from behind and see what leg you step forward with. This is your lead leg. It is very important that you learn to switch lead legs so that you are able to go over the hurdle with both legs. It allows you more flexibility in a race.

Steps

In the high hurdle events, it is very important that you "know your steps." Some people 5 step, others 4 step, and still others 3 step. This refers to how many steps you take in between hurdles. Note that this does not count the step when you land after coming off of a hurdle. When you 4 step, you must switch legs but when you 3 or 5 step, you keep the same lead and trail legs.

Hitting hurdles

A modern hurdle will fall over if a runner hits it. There is no penalty for hitting a hurdle (provided this is not judged deliberate), although it usually slows a hurdler down. However, pushing the hurdle with one's hands or running out of one's lane as a result of hitting the hurdle is cause for disqualification. While hitting hurdles is not generally considered desirable, there have been a few sprint hurdlers who have been successful despite knocking over many hurdles.

Steeplechase

Another demanding event in which runners must negotiate obstacles is the steeplechase, which is not considered a hurdle race. Steeplechase barriers are the same height as intermediate hurdles but steeplechase barriers are solid and will not fall over if hit. Runners often step on barriers as they go over them. Another difference is that the steeplechase is a distance race rather than a sprint.

Shuttle hurdle

There are also shuttle hurdle relay races, although they are rarely run. They are usually only found at track meets that consist entirely of relay races. In a shuttle hurdle relay, each of four hurdlers on a team runs the opposite direction from the preceding runner. The standard races correspond to the standard sprint hurdle races: 4 × 110 m for men and 4 × 100 m for women.