The 400m Hurdles: Rules, Records and Fantasy Scoring

What the event is

One lap of the track with ten hurdles in the way. The 400m hurdles combines the pain of the flat 400m with a technical problem: the athlete must arrive at each hurdle on the right leg and at the right stride, while getting steadily more tired. It has produced some of the most dominant athletes and fastest-improving world records in the sport over the last decade.

How it is run

The hurdles stand 0.914m high for men and 0.762m for women. The first hurdle is 45m from the start, the remaining nine are 35m apart, and there is a 40m run-in to the finish. Athletes start from blocks, stay in lanes throughout and can hurdle with either leg. Knocking a hurdle down is not a foul, but deliberately doing so or trailing a leg around the outside is.

The heart of the event is the stride pattern. Elite men aim to take 13 strides between hurdles for as long as possible before dropping to 14 or 15; elite women aim for 15. Every change of pattern costs time, so the athletes who can hold their pattern deepest into the race usually win.

Championships run heats, semifinals and a final. One-day meets run a straight final.

What a world-class mark looks like

Sub-47 for men and sub-52 for women is world class. The event's records have fallen dramatically in recent years: the men's world record of 45.94 was set in 2021, and the women's record of 50.37 in 2024, both by athletes who rewrote the event.

How the 400m hurdles scores in Heatsheet

Hurdles fill the specialty roster slot, along with the steeplechase, combined events and race walks, and your lineup can start two specialty athletes. Finals pay 10 down to 1, with advancement bonuses at championships.

The 400m hurdles is a strong fantasy event because the top athletes are unusually consistent, races are rarely tactical, and the leading hurdlers sometimes double in the flat 400m. Stride-pattern failures do produce surprise results in finals, but far fewer than in the 800m. Full rules on the scoring page.