400 metres hurdles 400 metres hurdles The 400 metres hurdles is a track and field hurdling event. The event has been on the Olympic athletics programme since 1900 for men and since 1984 for women. 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
All-weather running track today. In the mid-1960s Tartan tracks, surfaced with a product by 3M. The name "Tartan" is a trademark, but many have misused it as a genericized trademark. This process was the first to commercialize a polyurethane surface for running tracks, though originally conceived for horse racing. Many Tartan tracks were installed worldwide, including at many of the top Universities in the United States. Among that list was a Tartan track installed in the Estadio Olímpico Universitario, home of the 1968 Summer Olympics at Mexico City, which were the first global championships to use such a track. Olympic shot put champion