What happens if you hit a hurdle in a race

Then along came a guy named Roger Kingdom. The two-time Olympic gold medal winner ushered in a new era of hurdling that still rules to this day. Kingdom, a big, strong athlete who also played defensive back at the University of Pittsburgh, found that he was powerful enough to knock hurdles over and keep on going.

When he first arrived on the scene, it was downright bewildering to see hurdles literally bouncing off the track while he, totally unfazed, kept on running without any break in his stride. The truth of the matter, however, is that Kingdom was much more of a technician than people give him credit for.

But still, when people saw Kingdom smashing hurdles and winning races, they figured they could do that too. So, whether Kingdom meant to or not, he ushered in the era of the power hurdler.

How do you get to be one of the best hurdlers in the world making such a basic mistake? And how much better could you be if you corrected it? One thing we can be sure of is that hurdlers are not going to police themselves.

If the goal is to get from A to B as fast as you can, then hurdlers are going to try to get from A to B as fast as they can. I can remember one time when I was running in the semi-final round of a conference championship meet in college. But obviously, I was hitting hurdles hard enough and often enough to risk being disqualified.

Runners typically take seven to eight strides before hurdle one, then use a three-stride pattern between the rest, according to Brian Mac, performance coach for UK Athletics. The International Association of Athletics Federations is the worldwide governing body for track and field events, including hurdles. Associations at the national, state and local level generally follow IAFF rules, though modifications can exist.

The placement of the hurdles depends on the length of the race and the sex of the athlete. Ten hurdles are used in the meter, meter and meter hurdle races. Men run the races with 9. Both men and women run the races with 35 meters between hurdles. The same set-up applies to youth divisions. The first hurdle is set There are 9. In the women's , the hurdles measure. The first hurdle is set 13 meters from the starting line.

There are 8. The first hurdle is set 45 meters from the starting line. There are 35 meters between hurdles and 40 meters from the final hurdle to the finish line.

All hurdle events include eight runners in the final. Depending on the number of entries, each event includes two or three preliminary rounds before the final. In , the meter event included one round of preliminary heats followed by quarterfinal and semifinal rounds prior to the final. The and both included a round of preliminary heats followed by a semifinal and then the final.

Runners in all hurdle events begin in starting blocks. In all events other than the meter hurdles, the runners line up on a single start line. In the , which necessarily involves rounding one curve, the runners start positions are staggered. The rationale for this is that staggering the start allows the runners to stay in separate lanes, a clear necessity for a hurdle event. If the start wasn't staggered and there were a single un-staggered finish line, the runner in the innermost lane would have the greatest distance advantage, and runners on the outer lines would be disadvantaged, with the runner on the outmost line having the greatest distance to travel -- in effect, creating an event where each runner would need to complete a distance different from all others.

Their hands must be behind the start line. The race begins with the opening gun. Prior to the Olympics, runners were permitted one false start and were disqualified only after a second false start.