The women's 100 metres hurdles event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place between 31 July and 2 August 2021 at the Japan National Stadium. 40 athletes from 28 nations competed. In the semifinals, Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico broke the Olympic record, running 12.26 secs, to go equal fourth on the world all-time list. The following day in the final, she won the gold medal with a time of 12.37 secs. American world record holder Keni Harrison finished second to clinch silver and the bronze to Jamaica's Megan Tapper.

Summary Jasmine Camacho-Quinn came into the Olympics with the top 3 times of the year, making her the one to beat. After failing to make it to the 2016 Olympics, Kendra Harrison set the world record as a consolation. Five years later, this was her first Olympics. In the semi-final round, Camacho-Quinn confirmed her favorite status by setting the Olympic Record at 12.26, which also equalled the #4 time in history and set her national record. It took 12.67 just to get into the final.

From the gun, the final was a two-person race, Henderson out fast but Camacho-Quinn almost matching her for the first couple of hurdles. From there, Camacho-Quinn just was moving faster, passing over the fourth hurdle and pulling away on every hurdle after that. Out in lane 8, Megan Tapper was the next closest, slowly gaining on Harrison. Camacho-Quinn was the clear winner. Tapper couldn't catch Harrison for silver, but the judges spent several minutes confirming the photo finish before posting the next two places. The winning time was 12.37 as every athlete save Tapper and 4th place Tobi Amusan had run faster in the semifinals the previous evening.

Background This was the 13th appearance of the event, having appeared at every Olympics since 1972.

Qualification

A National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter up to 3 qualified athletes in the women's 100 metres hurdles event if all athletes meet the entry standard or qualify by ranking during the qualifying period. (The limit of 3 has been in place since the 1930 Olympic Congress.) The qualifying standard is 12.84 seconds. This standard was "set for the sole purpose of qualifying athletes with exceptional performances unable to qualify through the IAAF World Rankings pathway." The world rankings, based on the average of the best five results for the athlete over the qualifying period and weighted by the importance of the meet, will then be used to qualify athletes until the cap of 40 is reached.

The qualifying period was originally from 1 May 2019 to 29 June 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the period was suspended from 6 April 2020 to 30 November 2020, with the end date extended to 29 June 2021. The world rankings period start date was also changed from 1 May 2019 to 30 June 2020; athletes who had met the qualifying standard during that time were still qualified, but those using world rankings would not be able to count performances during that time. The qualifying time standards could be obtained in various meets during the given period that have the approval of the IAAF. Only outdoor meets are eligible. The most recent Area Championships may be counted in the ranking, even if not during the qualifying period.

NOCs can also use their universality place—each NOC can enter one female athlete regardless of time if they had no female athletes meeting the entry standard for an athletics event—in the 100 metres hurdles.

Records Prior to this competition, the existing global and area records were as follows.

Area Time (s) Wind Athlete Nation Africa 12.44 +0.4 Glory Alozie Asia 12.44 –0.8 Olga Shishigina Europe 12.21 +0.7 Yordanka Donkova North, Central America and Caribbean 12.20 +0.3 Kendra Harrison Oceania 12.28 +1.1 Sally Pearson South America 12.71 +0.1 Maurren Maggi

The following record was established during the competition:

Date Event Athlete Nation Time Record 1 August Semifinal 3 Jasmine Camacho-Quinn 12.26

The following national records were established during the competition:

Nation Athlete Round Time Notes Italy Luminosa Bogliolo Semifinals 12.75 Puerto Rico Jasmine Camacho-Quinn Semifinals Liberia Ebony Morrison Semifinals 12.74

Schedule All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+9)

The women's 100 metres hurdles took place over three consecutive days.

Date Time Round Saturday, 31 July 2021 9:00 Round 1 Sunday, 1 August 2021 19:00 Semifinals Tuesday, 2 August 2021 9:00 Final

Results Round 1 Qualification Rules: First 4 in each heat (Q) and the next 4 fastest (q) advance to the semifinals.

Wind readings- Heat 1: +1.0 m/s; Heat 2: +0.4 m/s; Heat 3: +0.4 m/s; Heat 4: -1.1 m/s; Heat 5: +0.3 m/s

Heat 1 RankLaneAthleteNationTimeNotes16Andrea Vargas12.71, 29Nadine Visser12.72, 38Gabbi Cunningham12.8345Cindy Sember13.0053Jiamin Chen13.0964Reetta Hurske13.1072Ayako Kimura13.2587Ricarda Lobe13.43

Heat 2 RankLaneAthleteNationTimeNotes16Kendra Harrison12.7423Liz Clay12.8732Luminosa Bogliolo12.9344Elvira Herman12.9557Mulern Jean12.99, 69Ebony Morrison13.0078Sarah Lavin13.1685Laura Valette14.52

Heat 3 RankLaneAthleteNationTimeNotes14Tobi Amusan12.7228Yanique Thompson12.7436Pia Skrzyszowska12.75, 49Devynne Charlton12.8457Annimari Korte13.0663Marthe Koala13.1172Masumi Aoki13.59 —5Elisavet Pesiridou —

Heat 4 RankLaneAthleteNationTimeNotes19Britany Anderson12.6723Christina Clemons12.9134Luca Kozak12.9747Pedrya Seymour13.0455Elisa Maria di Lazzaro13.0862Teresa Errandonea13.1578Ketiley Batista13.40 —6Cyrena Samba-Mayela —

Heat 5 RankLaneAthleteNationTimeNotes12Jasmine Camacho-Quinn12.4125Megan Tapper12.53, 38Anne Zagre12.83, 46Tiffany Porter12.8554Asuka Terada12.9563Klaudia Siciarz12.9879Zoe Sedney13.0387Ditaji Kambundji13.1791Ana Camila Pirelli13.98

Semifinals Qualification rules: First 2 in each heat (Q) and the next 2 fastest (q) advance to the finals.

Wind readings- Heat 1: -0.8 m/s; Heat 2: +0.0 m/s; Heat 3: -0.2 m/s

Semifinal 1

RankLaneAthleteNationTimeNotes15Tobi Amusan12.6228Devynne Charlton12.6634Andrea Vargas12.6947Christina Clemons12.7652Klaudia Siciarz12.8463Asuka Terada13.06 9Luca Kozak 6Yanique Thompson

Semifinal 2 RankLaneAthleteNationTimeNotes 1 4Britany Anderson 12.40 , 2 7Kendra Harrison 12.51 3 6Liz Clay 12.71 4 8Luminosa Bogliolo 12.75 5 9Tiffany Porter 12.86 6 5Pia Skrzyszowska 12.89 7 2Mulern Jean 13.09 (0.088) 8 3Pedrya Seymour 13.09 (0.090)

Semifinal 3 RankLaneAthleteNationTimeNotes 1 7Jasmine Camacho-Quinn 12.26 , , 2 4Megan Tapper 12.62 3 6Nadine Visser 12.63 , 4 8Gabbi Cunningham 12.67 5 9Elvira Herman 12.71 6 2Ebony Morrison 12.74 7 3Cindy Sember 12.76 8 5Anne Zagre 12.78

Final

Wind reading: -0.3 m/s

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 5 Jasmine Camacho-Quinn 0.149 12.37 4 Kendra Harrison 0.158 12.52 9 Megan Tapper 0.166 12.55 4 6 Tobi Amusan 0.161 12.60 5 3 Nadine Visser 0.152 12.73 6 8 Devynne Charlton 0.144 12.74 7 2 Gabbi Cunningham 0.172 13.01 8 7 Britany Anderson 0.164 13.24

References