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The women’s 100 metres hurdles occupies a distinctive place in the history of record progression because it was not part of the original structure of women’s hurdling. For decades, the standard sprint hurdles event for women was the 80 metres hurdles, first contested internationally in the inter-war period and retained at championship level until the late 1960s. The 100 metres hurdles emerged only as part of the wider modernisation of women’s athletics, when the event programme was gradually brought closer to the men’s model and the shorter hurdle race was replaced by a longer sprint discipline.

This means that the early history of the event is not a long pre-federation story in the traditional sense, but rather a transition from one event to another. The first marks in the progression belong to the years immediately before official record recognition, when athletes and federations were beginning to experiment with the new distance and to establish competitive standards. The event was officially accepted for world-record purposes only in the late 1960s, so the early performances represent a formative stage in which the 100 metres hurdles was still defining its place within the women’s programme.

From the outset, the event combined continuity and change. It inherited the technical tradition of the 80 metres hurdles, yet it demanded a different rhythm and race distribution because of the longer distance. The early progression therefore reflects more than a simple record list: it captures the moment when women’s sprint hurdling moved from its older format into a new era. Athletes such as Pamela Kilborn, Maureen Caird, Karin Balzer and Teresa Sukniewicz stand at the centre of that transition, shaping the event in the years just before and just after it entered the official IAAF record framework.

The most important historical point in the women’s 100 metres hurdles is that it represents a replacement rather than a continuation. Unlike the men’s sprint hurdles, whose lineage runs uninterrupted through the same distance and discipline, the women’s event begins as the successor to the 80 metres hurdles. Its early progression therefore has a compressed and transitional character, with the first recognised marks appearing in a period when the event was still new to the international programme.

That transitional quality is also reflected in the list of early performers. Pam Kilborn was central to the event’s first phase, appearing both in the experimental and the early official progression, while Maureen Caird and Karin Balzer helped establish the first world-class standards under the new format. By the time the event entered the IAAF record era, the level had already advanced rapidly, confirming that the new discipline had been adopted almost immediately by the world’s leading hurdlers.

100m Hurdles women World Record Progression – Table Data

Before the 100 metres hurdles was fully standardised, the event passed through an experimental phase that illustrates how gradual the transition from the 80 metres hurdles actually was. As shown in the supplementary list, marks recorded up to 1966 were achieved in a trial version of the event in which the hurdles were set at 76.2 cm, rather than the later standard height of 84 cm. These performances should therefore be seen as part of the developmental background of the event rather than as fully equivalent to the later official progression.

The experimental marks are historically valuable because they show how national federations and organisers were testing the new race format before it entered the formal world-record structure. In effect, they form a bridge between the old 80-metre discipline and the eventual 100-metre hurdles, revealing that the event did not appear overnight in its final form. Only once the hurdle height and race conditions were standardised did the 100 metres hurdles settle into the version that would become the permanent global championship event.

Performance	Athlete	Country	Date	Location	Competition	Notes
12.12	Tobi Amusan	NGR	24/7/2022	Eugene	World Championships
12.20	Kendra Harrison	USA	22/7/2016	London	Muller Anniversary Games, IAAF Diamonde League
12.21	Yordanka Donkova	BUL	20/8/1988	Stara Zagora	National Meeting
12.25	Ginka Zagorcheva	BUL	8/8/1987	Drama	Balkan Games
12.26	Yordanka Donkova	BUL	7/9/1986	Ljubljana	Balkan Games
12.35	Yordanka Donkova	BUL	17/8/1986	Köln	Weltklasse in Köln
12.29	Yordanka Donkova	BUL	17/8/1986	Köln	Weltklasse in Köln
12.36	Grażyna Józefa Rabsztyn	POL	13/6/1980	Warszawa	Janus Kusociński Memorial
12.48	Grażyna Józefa Rabsztyn	POL	10/6/1978	FŸrth	International Meeting	Since 01/01/1977 the electronic timing in 1/100 second is mandatory
12.3	Annelie Ehrhardt	GDR	22/7/1973	Dresden	GDR Chmpionships	Since 30/8/1974 separate world record lists for manually and electronically measured times were established
12.59	Annelie Ehrhardt	GDR	8/9/1972	MŸnchen	The XX Olympic Games
12.5	Pamela Kilborn-Ryan	AUS	28/6/1972	Warszawa	Janus Kusociński Memorial
12.5	Annelie Ehrhardt	GDR	15/6/1972	Potsdam	International Meeting
12.6	Karin Balzer	GDR	31/7/1971	Berlin (Ost)	EC Test
12.7	Karin Balzer	GDR	25/7/1971	Berlin (Ost)	EC Test
12.7	Teresa Sukniewicz	POL	20/9/1970	Warszawa	National Meeting
12.7	Karin Balzer	GDR	26/7/1970	Berlin (Ost)	Invitation event during Children and Youth Spartakiade
12.8	Cheng Chi	TPE	12/7/1970	MŸnchen	Hanns-Braun Memorial
12.8	Teresa Sukniewicz	POL	20/6/1970	Warszawa	Janus Kusociński Memorial
12.9	Karin Balzer	GDR	5/9/1969	Berlin (Ost)	EC Test
13.0	Karin Balzer	GDR	27/7/1969	Leipzig	International Meeting
13.3	Karin Balzer	GDR	20/6/1969	Warszawa	Janus Kusociński Memorial
13.3	Teresa Sukniewicz	POL	20/6/1969	Warszawa	Janus Kusociński Memorial