400m Hurdles Pacing
How the world's best athletes pace the 400m Hurdles.
Step Patterns
The 400mH is the only hurdle event where athletes change their stride count between hurdles mid-race. Elite men start with 13 steps between barriers and add steps (14, then 15) as fatigue builds. Women typically start at 15 and move to 16–17. When the transition happens — and whether it's smooth — often decides the race.
Karsten Warholm's 45.94 WR in Tokyo held 13 steps through H7, then jumped to 15 for the final hurdles. That late transition kept his speed up longer than anyone before him.
Three Phases
Coaches split the race into three parts: Drive (H1–H4, building rhythm), Maintain (H4–H7, carrying speed through the turn), and Survive (H7–H10, limiting deceleration). Warholm's H8–H10 intervals were only ~12% slower than his H2–H4 units. Most hurdlers lose 20–25% through that same stretch.
The Run-In
The 40m from H10 to the line is the longest run-in of any hurdle event, and it comes at the point of maximum fatigue. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone has consistently closed faster than the field over this stretch — running the final 40m quicker than her competitors even when their splits are similar through H8.