Distances
There are sprint hurdle races and long hurdle races. The standard sprint hurdle race is 110 meters for men and 100 meters for women. The standard long hurdle race is 400 meters 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 meters for both men and women, although races 55 meters or 50 meters long are sometimes run. A 60 meter indoor race is run over 5 hurdles. A shorter race may occasionally have only 4 hurdles. Outdoors, a long hurdle race is sometimes shortened to 300 meters for high school races over 8 hurdles (spaced distance-wise identical to the beginning of a standard 400 meter race), and 200 meter races for middle school and younger divisions over 5 hurdles (spaced in the same position as the last 5 hurdles of a standard 400 meter race). Masters age divisions also run a permutation of 300 meters with 7 hurdles (in the same position as the last 7 hurdles of a standard 400 meter race) and 200 meters with 5 (spaced the same as for the youth) for older age divisions.
There are five hurdle heights on most standard hurdles. The highest position, called a "high" hurdle (or sometimes a "college high" or "open high") is used for men's sprint hurdle races (60 m, 100 m and 110 m), which are 42 inches (106.7 cm). The next highest, frequently called a "high school high" 39 inches (99.1 cm) is used by masters men under age 50, high school and youth boys. The middle position of 36 inches (91.44 cm), is called an "intermediate" which is used for men's long hurdle races (400 m) plus some youth and masters age divisions. The next lower position, 33 inches (83.8 cm) is called the "women's high" used for women's short hurdle races. The lowest position, called the "low hurdle" 30 inches (76.2 cm) is used for women's long hurdles plus many youth and masters races. Some races call for 27 inches / 68.6 centimetres for youth or masters events. Hurdles that go to this position are rare and are notable by having a sixth position.
In sprint hurdle races for men, regardless of the length of the race, the first hurdle is 13.72 m (45 ft) from the starting line and the distance between hurdles is 9.14 m (30 ft). In sprint hurdle races for women, the first hurdle is 13 m (42 ft 8 in) from the starting line and the distance between hurdles is 8.5 m (27 ft 11 in). In long hurdle events, whether for men or women, the first hurdle is 45 m (147 ft 8 in) from the starting line and the distance between hurdles is 35 m (114 ft 10 in). Most races which are shorter than the standard distance (such as indoor races) are simply run over fewer hurdles but use the same distances from the starting line.
There are variations on hurdle height and spacing for the age groups of athletes competing. See Masters athletics (track and field) and Youth athletics.
Read more about this topic: Hurdling
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