Women's 100 metres hurdles world record progression

The women's 100 metres hurdles is an outdoor track event over a distance of 100 metres with ten hurdles at the height of 83.8 cm (33 inches).^[1] The event superseded the women's 80 metres hurdles.^[2] The world records of the women's 100 metres hurdles have been recognised by World Athletics (called the International Association of Athletics Federations until 2019) since 1969.^[3] Every world record undergoes a ratification process that includes a wind assistance check and doping control.^[4]

Tobi Amusan (center) during the semi-finals at the 2022 World Athletics Championships where she set her world record of 12.12 s.

Initially, 100 metres hurdles races were hand-timed to the tenth of a second. Some races were also fully automatically timed to the hundredth of a second in addition to the hand timing. In 1975–77, World Athletics accepted separate fully automatically timed records for this event, but no new world records were set in that period. From 1977, World Athletics required fully automatic timing for all races of this event, which lead to the recognition of a slower time as the new world record.^[5]

Twenty-three world records in this event have been recognised by World Athletics, of which four were equalling the then-current world record. Nine records were set by athletes from East Germany, five by athletes from Poland, five by athletes from Bulgaria, and four by athletes from other nations. The first hand-timed world record of 13.3 seconds was set by Karin Balzer of East Germany in 1969. Balzer has set a total of six world records in this event, more than any other athlete. The last hand-timed world record of 12.3 seconds was set by Annelie Ehrhardt of East Germany in 1973. In 1977, the first recognised fully automatically timed world record became the time of 12.59 seconds set by Ehrhardt in 1972. The longest-standing world record of 12.21 seconds was set by Yordanka Donkova of Bulgaria in 1988 and stood for almost 28 years until 2016. The current world record of 12.12 seconds was set by Tobi Amusan of Nigeria in 2022.^[6]

Progression

Hand-timed records

World records of the women's 100 metres hurdles in 1969–76

Athlete (Nation)	Time in sTooltip Second	Wind in m/sTooltip Metre per second	Auto in sTooltip Second	Location	Date	Ref.
Karin Balzer (GDR)	13.3 h	+1.0		Warsaw, Poland	20 June 1969	[3]
Teresa Sukniewicz (POL)	13.3 h	+1.3		Warsaw, Poland	20 June 1969	[3]
Karin Balzer (GDR)	13.0 h	+1.6		Leipzig, East Germany	27 July 1969	[3]
Karin Balzer (GDR)	12.9 h	+0.7		East Berlin, East Germany	5 September 1969	[3]
Teresa Sukniewicz (POL)	12.8 h	+1.3		Warsaw, Poland	20 June 1970	[3]
Chi Cheng (TPE)	12.8 h	+1.1	12.93	Munich, West Germany	12 July 1970	[3]
Karin Balzer (GDR)	12.7 h	+0.4		East Berlin, East Germany	26 July 1970	[3]
Teresa Sukniewicz (POL)	12.7 h	+1.6		Warsaw, Poland	20 September 1970	[3]
Karin Balzer (GDR)	12.7 h	+1.5		East Berlin, East Germany	25 July 1971	[3]
Karin Balzer (GDR)	12.6 h	+1.9		East Berlin, East Germany	31 July 1971	[3]
Annelie Ehrhardt (GDR)	12.5 h	+0.7		Potsdam, East Germany	15 June 1972	[3]
Pamela Ryan (AUS)	12.5 h	+0.9	12.93	Warsaw, Poland	28 June 1972	[3]
Annelie Ehrhardt (GDR)	12.3 h	+1.5	12.68	Dresden, East Germany	22 July 1973	[3]

Fully automatically timed records

World records of the women's 100 metres hurdles since 1977

Athlete (Nation)	Time in sTooltip Second	Wind in m/sTooltip metre per second	Location	Date	Ref.
Annelie Ehrhardt (GDR)	12.59	+0.6	Munich, West Germany	8 September 1972	[3]
Grażyna Rabsztyn (POL)	12.48	+1.9	Fürth, West Germany	10 June 1978	[3]
Grażyna Rabsztyn (POL)	12.36	+1.9	Warsaw, Poland	13 June 1980	[3]
Yordanka Donkova (BUL)	12.35	+0.1	Cologne, West Germany	17 August 1986	[3]
Yordanka Donkova (BUL)	12.29	-0.4	Cologne, West Germany	17 August 1986	[3]
Yordanka Donkova (BUL)	12.26	+1.5	Ljubljana, Yugoslavia	7 September 1986	[3]
Yordanka Donkova (BUL)	12.25	+1.4	Drama, Greece	8 August 1987	[3]
Yordanka Donkova (BUL)	12.21	+0.7	Stara Zagora, Bulgaria	20 August 1988	[3]
Kendra Harrison (USA)	12.20	+0.3	London, United Kingdom	22 July 2016	[7]
Tobi Amusan (NGR)	12.12	+0.9	Eugene, Oregon, United States	24 July 2022	[8]