Athletics
400 metres hurdles
Karsten Warholm 45.94 (2021)
Sydney McLaughlin 50.68 (2022)
Karsten Warholm 45.94 (2021)
Sydney McLaughlin 51.46 (2021)
Alison dos Santos 46.29 (2022)
Sydney McLaughlin 50.68 (2022)
On a standard outdoor track, 400 metres is the length of the inside lane, once around the stadium. Runners stay in their lanes the entire way after starting out of the blocks and must clear ten hurdles that are evenly spaced around the track. The hurdles are positioned and weighted so that they fall forward if bumped into with sufficient force, to prevent injury to the runners. Although there is no longer any penalty for knocking hurdles over, runners prefer to clear them cleanly, as touching them during the race slows runners down.
The current men's and women's world record holders are Karsten Warholm with 45.94 seconds and Sydney McLaughlin with 50.68 seconds. Compared to the 400 metres run, the hurdles race takes the men about three seconds longer and the women four seconds longer. Men clear hurdles that are 36 inches (91.4 cm) high, while women negotiate 30 inches (76.2 cm) barriers.
The 400 m hurdles was held for both sexes at the inaugural IAAF World Championships in Athletics. The first championship for women came at the 1980 World Championships in Athletics – being held as a one-off due to the lack of a race at the 1980 Summer Olympics.
American athlete Glenn Davis had a prodigious start to his hurdling career, running his first race in April 1956 in 54.4 s. Two months later, he ran a new world record with 49.5 s and later that year he won the 400 m hurdles at the Olympics, and was also the first to repeat that feat in 1960.
In terms of success and longevity in competition, Edwin Moses' record is significant: he 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, from 26 August 1977 until 4 June 1987. He finished third in the 1988 Olympic final, the last race of his career. He also held the world record for sixteen years from when he first broke it at the Olympics on 25 July 1976 until it was finally broken by Kevin Young at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.
* Note: Edwin Moses, Kevin Young and Karsten Warholm are the only male 400 m hurdlers to have been Olympic Champion, World Champion, and broken the World Record.
* Note: Sally Gunnell, Dalilah Muhammad and Sydney McLaughlin are the only female 400 m hurdlers to have been Olympic Champion, World Champion, and broken the World Record.