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)."Competition Rules & Technical Rules" (PDF), p. 42, World Athletics, 17 January 2024. Retrieved 3 July 2024. The event superseded the women's 80 metres hurdles."100 Metres Hurdles", World Athletics. Retrieved 19 July 2024. 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. Every world record undergoes a ratification process that includes a wind assistance check and doping control."Competition Rules & Technical Rules" (PDF), pp. 25–28, World Athletics, 17 January 2024. Retrieved 3 July 2024.
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.
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. A world record of 12.12 seconds was set by Tobi Amusan of Nigeria in 2022."World Record Progression of 100 Metres Hurdles", World Athletics. Retrieved 19 July 2024. The latest record of 12.09 was set by Masai Russell of USA on 27 August 2026 at the Weltklasse Zürich.
Progression Ratified Not ratified Ratified but later rescinded Pending ratification Hand-timed records +World records of the women's 100 metres hurdles in 1969–76Athlete (Nation)Time in Wind in in LocationDate13.3 +1.0Warsaw, Poland20 June 196913.3 +1.3Warsaw, Poland20 June 196913.0 +1.6Leipzig, East Germany27 July 196912.9 +0.7East Berlin, East Germany5 September 196912.8 +1.3Warsaw, Poland20 June 197012.8 +1.112.93Munich, West Germany12 July 197012.7 +0.4East Berlin, East Germany26 July 197012.7 +1.6Warsaw, Poland20 September 197012.7 +1.5East Berlin, East Germany25 July 197112.6 +1.9East Berlin, East Germany31 July 197112.5 +0.7Potsdam, East Germany15 June 197212.5 +0.912.93Warsaw, Poland28 June 197212.3 +1.512.68Dresden, East Germany22 July 1973
Fully automatically timed records +World records of the women's 100 metres hurdles since 1977Athlete (Nation)Time in Wind in LocationDate12.59 +0.6Munich, West Germany8 September 197212.48 +1.9Fürth, West Germany10 June 197812.36 +1.9Warsaw, Poland13 June 198012.35 +0.1Cologne, West Germany17 August 198612.29 -0.4Cologne, West Germany17 August 198612.26 +1.5Ljubljana, Yugoslavia7 September 198612.25 +1.4Drama, Greece8 August 198712.21 +0.7Stara Zagora, Bulgaria20 August 198812.20 +0.3London, United Kingdom22 July 2016"World records ratified", World Athletics, 27 September 2016. Retrieved 1 July 2024.12.12 +0.9Eugene, Oregon, United States24 July 2022"Ratified: world records for Amusan, Duplantis and McLaughlin", World Athletics, 20 September 2022. Retrieved 1 July 2024.12.09 0.0Zürich, Switzerland27 August 2026
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