# 400m Hurdles progression by age

> What a 400m hurdles time at 14, 15 or 16 projects to at 17 and 18 on a curve derived from USATF age-division records, and the college range it lands in.

**A boys' 1:00.00 400m hurdles at 16 projects to 57.92 at 18; a girls' 1:11.00 400m hurdles at 16 projects to 1:10.28 at 18 on the TrackReels curve derived from USATF age-division records.**

Enter your current age and your best fully automatic 400m Hurdles time. The tool holds your
relative standing constant and prints the time that level is worth at every age to 30, from
a curve TrackReels derives from USATF championship records by age division (ages 16 and up: the youngest division with a published record).

Enter your age and your best mark (fully automatic timing for a race), and the table shows the same level on the curve at every age up to 30.

## What a 400m hurdles time at 16 projects to

Four starting points, boys then girls, carried forward on the same curve. The curve starts at 16, the youngest age with a published record for this event, so the ladder starts there.

### Boys

| At 16 | At 17 | At 18 | At 20 | At 22 | The age-18 time against college standards |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **56.00** | 55.01 | 54.06 | 53.14 | 52.03 | Inside the published NCAA Division I recruiting range. |
| **58.00** | 56.98 | 55.99 | 55.04 | 53.89 | Inside the published NCAA Division I recruiting range. |
| **1:00.00** | 58.94 | 57.92 | 56.94 | 55.75 | Inside the published NCAA Division II recruiting range. |
| **1:03.00** | 1:01.89 | 1:00.81 | 59.78 | 58.54 | Inside the published NAIA recruiting range. |

### Girls

| At 16 | At 17 | At 18 | At 20 | At 22 | The age-18 time against college standards |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **1:05.00** | 1:04.67 | 1:04.34 | 1:00.08 | 58.60 | Inside the published NCAA Division II recruiting range. |
| **1:08.00** | 1:07.66 | 1:07.31 | 1:02.85 | 1:01.31 | Inside the published NCAA Division II recruiting range. |
| **1:11.00** | 1:10.64 | 1:10.28 | 1:05.63 | 1:04.01 | Inside the published NCAA Division III recruiting range. |
| **1:15.00** | 1:14.62 | 1:14.24 | 1:09.32 | 1:07.62 | Below the published college ranges. Plenty of athletes close that gap in a season. |

The last column places the age-18 projection against the published college
recruiting standards for the 400m Hurdles. See the full ladder for
[boys](https://trackreels.io/standards/400m-hurdles/M) and [girls](https://trackreels.io/standards/400m-hurdles/F).

## How the projection works

No governing body publishes youth age factors for jumps, throws or hurdles, so this curve is
TrackReels' own, built only from published records. USA Track & Field publishes the
championship meet record for every age division of its Junior Olympics, for its U20
championships and for its open championships: one governing body, one athlete pool, every age
from 9 to open class. Each division record, as a fraction of the open record, is the factor for
the top age of that division; between divisions the factor is a straight line, and from 25 it is
held at 1.0, the same open-age plateau the WMA tables use. Your relative standing against that
curve is the one number held fixed: the tool asks what time the same standing is worth
at each later age, with the implement or hurdle height that age competes with.

In one line: time at age B equals time at age A, times factor(A), divided by factor(B). The
records are printed below, so every factor can be checked by hand.

## What it cannot know

It knows nothing about you. A growth spurt, a new coach, a technical change, an injury, or a
season of doing the work will all move you off the curve, up or down, and the athletes coaches
remember are exactly the ones who moved off it. Read the projection as the target you are already
on pace for, not as a result you have earned. Enter fully automatic times only; a hand time is a different number, and the [hand time to FAT converter](https://trackreels.io/convert/hand-time-to-fat) fixes that first.

## The records the curve is built from

Every anchor, exactly as USATF publishes it, with the implement or hurdle height the
division competes with and the factor it produces. Between anchors the factor is a straight line.

### Boys

| Division | Anchored at age | Championship record | Implement or hurdle height | Factor |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 15-16 (Junior Olympics) | 16 | 51.56 | 36 in | 0.9011 |
| 17-18 (Junior Olympics) | 18 | 49.77 | 36 in | 0.9335 |
| U20 (USATF U20 Championships) | 19 | 49.45 | 36 in | 0.9395 |
| Open (USATF Outdoor Championships) | 25 | 46.46 | 36 in | 1.0000 |

### Girls

| Division | Anchored at age | Championship record | Implement or hurdle height | Factor |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 15-16 (Junior Olympics) | 16 | 58.26 | 30 in | 0.8694 |
| 17-18 (Junior Olympics) | 18 | 57.67 | 30 in | 0.8783 |
| U20 (USATF U20 Championships) | 19 | 54.54 | 30 in | 0.9287 |
| Open (USATF Outdoor Championships) | 25 | 50.65 | 30 in | 1.0000 |

### The factor at every age

The factor for each age, and the age standard it implies (the open standard divided by the factor).

| Age | Boys factor | Boys age standard | Girls factor | Girls age standard |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 16 | 0.9011 | 51.56 | 0.8694 | 58.26 |
| 17 | 0.9173 | 50.65 | 0.8738 | 57.97 |
| 18 | 0.9335 | 49.77 | 0.8783 | 57.67 |
| 19 | 0.9395 | 49.45 | 0.9287 | 54.54 |
| 20 | 0.9496 | 48.93 | 0.9406 | 53.85 |
| 21 | 0.9597 | 48.41 | 0.9525 | 53.18 |
| 22 | 0.9698 | 47.91 | 0.9643 | 52.53 |
| 23 | 0.9798 | 47.42 | 0.9762 | 51.88 |
| 24 | 0.9899 | 46.93 | 0.9881 | 51.26 |
| 25 | 1.0000 | 46.46 | 1.0000 | 50.65 |

Curve: TrackReels curve derived from USATF championship meet records by age division. Records transcribed as published from [USATF National Junior Olympic Track & Field Championships records](https://www.usatf.org/resources/statistics/records/championship-meet-records/usatf-national-junior-olympic-track-field-champion), [USATF U20 Outdoor Championships records](https://www.usatf.org/resources/statistics/records/championship-meet-records/usatf-u20-outdoor-championships-records), [USATF Outdoor Championships records](https://www.usatf.org/resources/statistics/records/championship-meet-records/usatf-outdoor-championships-records), retrieved 2026-09-09. This is TrackReels' own derivation, not a World Masters Athletics table and not an official standard of any body. Nothing on this page is estimated beyond the derivation described above.

## What is still not here

The 300m hurdles, a high school race with no U20 or open championship record to anchor a
curve on; the hammer and weight throws, which have no Junior Olympic division records; and the
combined events. The site would rather leave those out than invent a curve for them. The
[published college standards](https://trackreels.io/standards) cover every event the site ranks, and the
[hurdle specifications by level](https://trackreels.io/blog/hurdle-heights-and-spacing) explain what changes
with age for the hurdle races.

**A projection is a target. A profile is proof.**

Put the marks you have already made on a free TrackReels profile: every mark shows its date and, where they apply, wind and timing, you rank on the boards the day you post, and college coaches browse by event, class year and state.

[Create your free profile](https://trackreels.io/signup)

## Other events

**Running:** [100m](https://trackreels.io/progression/100m) · [200m](https://trackreels.io/progression/200m) · [400m](https://trackreels.io/progression/400m) · [800m](https://trackreels.io/progression/800m) · [1500m](https://trackreels.io/progression/1500m) · [Mile](https://trackreels.io/progression/mile) · [3200m](https://trackreels.io/progression/3200m) · [5000m](https://trackreels.io/progression/5000m)
**Jumps, throws and hurdles:** [Long Jump](https://trackreels.io/progression/long-jump) · [Triple Jump](https://trackreels.io/progression/triple-jump) · [High Jump](https://trackreels.io/progression/high-jump) · [Pole Vault](https://trackreels.io/progression/pole-vault) · [Shot Put](https://trackreels.io/progression/shot-put) · [Discus](https://trackreels.io/progression/discus) · [Javelin](https://trackreels.io/progression/javelin) · [110m Hurdles](https://trackreels.io/progression/110m-hurdles) · [100m Hurdles](https://trackreels.io/progression/100m-hurdles) · [All events](https://trackreels.io/progression)

## Keep reading

[### Hurdle Heights and Spacing: Youth, HS, NCAA, WA Every hurdle height, spacing, run-in and hurdle count for the 80m to 400m hurdles by level, transcribed from World Athletics, NFHS, NCAA and USATF rules.](https://trackreels.io/blog/hurdle-heights-and-spacing)[### Good 400m Times by Level: Rate Your Time Published 2026 state and section qualifying 400m times from California, Oregon and Missouri, the college recruiting ranges, and how to read your own split.](https://trackreels.io/blog/what-is-a-good-400m-time)[### Hand Time vs FAT: Why a Stopwatch Reads Fast What fully automatic timing is, the exact conversion coaches apply to a hand time, and why a stopwatch PR does not travel.](https://trackreels.io/blog/hand-timing-vs-fat-explained)

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