The charts summarize the number of athletes each country placed in the world top-100 outdoor rankings for 2003 (plus ties) and the highest-ranked of these. Since one or two placings may represent only exceptional individuals, rather than national program strength, I've listed only countries with three or more athletes in the top 100. The data base drawn upon is the world deep list from Mirko Jalava's web site <http://www.tilastopaja.com/>.
MEN'S 400 METER HURDLES 2003 WOMEN'S 400 METER HURDLES 2003 Country Top 100 Highest Country Top 100 Highest United States 28 4 United States 19 3 Jamaica 7 2 Russia 9 1 South Africa 7 10 China 5 15 Japan 7 28 Jamaica 5 16 Russia 6 26 Brazil 5 35 Great Britain 4 7 Ukraine 4 9 France 4 18 Poland 4 17 China 4 70 Germany 4 18 Spain 3 47 Great Britain 3 6 Brazil 3 48 Italy 3 23 Japan 3 31 France 3 67 32 countries represented 37 countries represented 100th = 50.22 100th = 57.61 In the women's event, another unusual distribution, with 15 countries represented in the first 20 places--RUS, AUS, USA, BAR, ROM, GBR, RSA, UKR, PUR, CUB, CHN, JAM, POL, GER, KAZ.