From my weekly WTW column.
One big takeaway is that Sydney may already be in world record shape — one would think having the hurdles in the wrong spot would slow you down significantly as it would mess up your rhythm. The other possibility is this shows the women’s hurdles heights should be higher if the goal is to make the event different from the 400m.
The men’s hurdles are six inches taller than the women’s 400m hurdles, yet the average man worldwide is just 4.5 inches taller (67.5 inches (5′ 7.5″) vs 63 inches (5’3″)) than the average woman.
Avg Height (inches)
Men: 67.5
Women: 63
Hurdle Height
Men: 36
Women: 30
Hurdle/Height %
Men: 53.3%
Women: 47.6%
Not that the women and men have to have every event exactly the same, but to get the ratios even, you either need to lower than men’s height to 32.1 inches or raise the women’s up to 33.1. Since all hurdles have a notch at 33 inches, it seems like raising the women’s hurdles up a peg is the way to go.
LRC’s Wejo adds: What if the athletes didn’t know exactly where the hurdles would be each race? Sounds crazy, but track and field needs a little more variability. However, Sydney’s form was so good, she’d probably win wherever the hurdles are set up.
What do you think?