The men's 110 metres hurdles was the first of the track and field

Track and field

Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...

 events on the athletics programme at the 1900 Summer Olympics

1900 Summer Olympics

The 1900 Summer Olympics, today officially known as the Games of the II Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1900 in Paris, France. No opening or closing ceremonies were held; competitions began on May 14 and ended on October 28. The Games were held as part of...

 in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. It was held on July 14, 1900. Nine athletes from three nations competed in the shortest of the hurdling

Hurdling

Hurdling is a type of track and field race.- Distances :There are sprint hurdle races and long hurdle races. The standard sprint hurdle race is 110 meters for men and 100 meters for women. The standard long hurdle race is 400 meters for both men and women...

 events.

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in seconds) prior to the 1900 Summer Olympics.

World Record	15.2(*)	Alvin Kraenzlein Alvin Kraenzlein Alvin Christian Kraenzlein was an American athlete. He was the first sportsman to win four Olympic titles in a single Olympic Games...	Chicago Chicago Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...  (USA United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... )	June 18, 1898
Olympic Record	17.6	Thomas Curtis Thomas Curtis Thomas Pelham "Tom" Curtis was an American athlete and the winner of the 110 metres hurdles at the 1896 Summer Olympics....	Athens Athens Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...  (GRE Greece Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe.... )	April 10, 1896 (NS Gregorian calendar The Gregorian calendar, also known as the Western calendar, or Christian calendar, is the internationally accepted civil calendar. It was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom the calendar was named, by a decree signed on 24 February 1582, a papal bull known by its opening words Inter... )

(*) unofficial 120 yards (= 109.73 m)

At first Alvin Kraenzlein

Alvin Kraenzlein

Alvin Christian Kraenzlein was an American athlete. He was the first sportsman to win four Olympic titles in a single Olympic Games...

 set a new unofficial world record in the first heat of the first round with 15.6 seconds. In the final he improved this to 15.4 seconds.

First round

In the first round, there were three heats. The top runners in each advanced to the finals, with the other runners competing in repechage

Repechage

Repechage is a practice amongst ladder competitions that allows participants that failed to meet qualifying standards by a small margin to continue to the next round.- Types of repechage :...

heats.

First round, heat 1

Place	Athlete	Time
1		15.6 s WR
2		(16.0)
3		(16.3)
—		DNF

Kraenzlein set a new world record and won by three yards, though he was slower than his previous mark of 15.2 seconds in the slightly shorter 120 yard hurdles.

First round, heat 2

Place	Athlete	Time
1		16.6 s
2		(16.8)
3		Unknown
—		DNF

Klingelhoefer pulled up lame, leaving Pritchard to win by a yard and a half.

First round, heat 3

Place	Athlete	Time
1		walkover

There was no competition in this heat, with the only hurdler advancing automatically.

Repechage

The two repechage heats consisted of all the hurdlers that had not qualified in the first round, except for the injured Adolphe Klingelhoefer, who withdrew. The winner of each heat joined the three top finishers of the first round in the final.

Repechage heat 1

Place	Athlete	Time
1		17.0 s
2		(17.8)
3		Unknown

Repechage heat 2

Place	Athlete	Time
1		17.0 s
2		Unknown

McLean won the second repechage heat easily to become the third person from the first preliminary heat to qualify for the final.

Final

Place	Athlete	Time
1		15.4 s WR
2		(15.5)
3		(15.6)
4		Unknown
—		DNF

McLean had a lead early, due in part to the error of the starter; even so, Kraenzlein was able to catch and pass him to win the first athletics competition of the 1900 Games, and Moloney, a better hurdler than McLean, nearly caught him as well. All three of the American hurdlers had come from the first preliminary heat. Pritchard, the winner of the second heat, pulled up lame.

Sources

• International Olympic Committee.
• De Wael, Herman. Herman's Full Olympians: "Athletics 1900". Accessed 18 March 2006. Available electronically at .