Hurdling

Lore & Background

In the early 19th century, hurdlers ran at and jumped over each hurdle, sometimes known as 'burgles', landing on both feet and checking forward motion. By the 20th century, technique evolved: today, dominant step patterns include 3-step for high hurdles (e.g., men's 110m and women's 100m hurdles), 7-step for low hurdles (e.g., women's 400m hurdles), and 13 to 15 steps for intermediate hurdles (400m hurdles). Hurdles are weighted to make accidental knocking disadvantageous, but such knocking does not cause disqualification. The highest position (42 inches) is used for men's sprint hurdles; the lowest standard height (27 inches) is used in some youth events, while women's 400m hurdles use 30-inch hurdles. Men's 400m hurdles use 36-inch hurdles. The most prominent events are 110m for men, 100m for women, and 400m for both sexes, all contested at the Summer Olympics and World Athletics Championships. The shorter distances run on the straight of a track; the 400m covers one lap. Indoor events include 60m hurdles (over 5 hurdles) and occasionally 55m or 50m. Women historically competed in the 80m hurdles at the Olympics in the mid-20th century. Hurdles races are also part of combined events like the decathlon and heptathlon.

Reader's Guide

Hurdling is significant as a core discipline of athletics, combining speed, technique, and precision. The sport has evolved from early 19th-century practices—where athletes landed on both feet—to modern events with standardized hurdle heights and spacing. Key distances include the 110m and 100m sprint hurdles (high hurdles) and the 400m long hurdles (low hurdles), all Olympic events. Technique is critical: efficient hurdlers minimize vertical motion, use a lead leg that is slightly bent, and keep the trail leg parallel to the hurdle top. The 400m version demands qualities similar to the 800m flat race. Hurdling also appears in the steeplechase (where athletes may step on barriers) and in cross country running over natural obstacles. Horse racing has its own variant. Today, hurdles races are run worldwide, with variations for youth, veterans, and indoor competitions.

Did You Know?

• In the early 19th century, hurdlers landed on both feet and checked their forward motion after each hurdle.
• In sprint hurdle races for men, the first hurdle is 13.72 m from the starting line and the distance between hurdles is 9.14 m.

From Burgles to Safety Hurdles

In the early nineteenth century, the act of clearing a barrier during a sprint looked nothing like what we see at modern championships. Athletes would charge at each obstacle—then called a 'burgle'—and leap over it, landing with both feet planted and their forward momentum deliberately arrested. That brute-force approach gave way gradually as the sport matured into a highly specialized discipline within athletics. This new geometry allowed the barrier to tip forward and clear the runner's path if struck, transforming the hurdle from a rigid wall into a forgiving, athlete-safe piece of equipment that still penalized poor technique through lost time rather than outright elimination.

The Olympic and Global Event Landscape

Each of these ten-hurdle contests has a long pedigree, though the sport's Olympic history is not without oddities. Women's 80-metre hurdles featured at the Olympics in the mid-twentieth century before being replaced. Indoors, the 60-metre race over five hurdles is the norm, with 55-metre and 50-metre variants appearing especially in the United States. Hurdling also appears inside combined events like the decathlon and heptathlon, broadening its reach beyond dedicated sprint specialists.

Technique, Step Patterns, and Athletic Demands

Efficient hurdling is far more than raw speed; it demands a well-rehearsed sequence of steps and a fluid running style in which the athlete stays on the balls of the feet throughout the entire race. The step pattern changes dramatically with the event: a three-step cycle is standard for high hurdles, a seven-step rhythm governs low hurdles, and a fifteen-step pattern is used for intermediate hurdles. The roots of the technique stretch beyond the track. In steeplechase, athletes may even step on the barrier to clear it, a freedom not granted in track hurdling. Cross-country runners hurdle over natural obstacles—logs, mounds of earth, small streams—and this represents the sporting origin from which modern track events evolved. Even horse racing maintains its own variant of hurdle racing built on similar principles of speed and clearance. Across all these forms, the core challenge remains the same: maintaining maximum forward velocity while negotiating a fixed obstacle at precisely the right moment.

The Geometry of Heights and Spacing

Every hurdle race is governed by exact measurements that leave no room for approximation. A rare sixth position at 27 inches (68.6 cm) exists for the youngest or oldest competitors. Spacing is equally precise. In men's sprint races the first hurdle sits 13.72 metres from the start and successive hurdles are 9.14 metres apart; women's sprint events use 13 metres and 8.5 metres respectively. Long-hurdle events place the first barrier 45 metres out with 35-metre gaps between each. The standard number of steps to the first hurdle in sprint races is eight. Rules are strict: passing under a hurdle or deliberately knocking one over results in disqualification, while an accidental touch merely costs time because the hurdles are weighted to resist being cleared.