Former World record holder in the Women’s 400 hurdles, American Kim Batten has launched a campaign to raise the height of the women’s 400 meters hurdles. 

Batten the 1996 Atlanta Olympics silver medalist who finished behind Jamaica’s gold medalist Deon Hemmings- Mcatty, in her 2026 campaign and petition entitled- “Raise the Hurdles” wants the height to move from 30 to 33 inches. 

In a post on social media post, the 56 year old World Championship gold medalist, says, ” This has long been a debate in the track and field community, but never has it been more evident of the need than the last few years with the recent performances and progressions in the event across the board, and dominated by the phenomenal current world record holder Sydney Mclaughlin-Levrone……but the time is now to scale into this challenge and opportunity”.

The first non-European world record-holder was Batten, who beat Britain’s Sally Gunnell’s record of 52.74 seconds with a time of 52.61.

Batten then held the record for eight years until Russian hurdler Yuliya Pechonkina broke the record in august 2003, with 52.34.

Since July 2019, two us athletes have broken the record a total of seven times.

Dalilah Muhammad broke the record twice, with her fastest time being 52.16. 

However since then, Sydney Mclaughlin-Levrone has broken it five times, with her fastest time of 50.65 achieved in June 2024.