Mens 110mH vs Womens 100mH

Does any one know why the men do 110m for the hurdles and the women do 100m. Seems like an odd distance to run. Why not both just do the 100mH?

Doesn't really provide an answer - but a wikipedia article below might provide some ideas...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/110_metres_hurdles

Wondered the same myself. Too late to change the 110m hurdles to a more conventional 100m now.

Could the reason for the difference be the fact that the men's hurdles are much higher so they need a bigger gap between each hurdle hence the extra 10m?

Whatever the exact reasons, the mens event was in existence earlier...

I suspect, when the women's event was brought in, it might have been believed that women couldn't either cope with the distance; or that, and more likely, 'male pride' had something to do with ensuring that women didn't have to run as far...

Though the other half says, and I quote, "...have you ever tried running with boobs?!"

etuoyo wrote:Wondered the same myself. Too late to change the 110m hurdles to a more conventional 100m now.

Could the reason for the difference be the fact that the men's hurdles are much higher so they need a bigger gap between each hurdle hence the extra 10m?

I suspect that this is closer to the truth.