The 4 × 200 metres relay is an

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competi ...

track event Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

in which teams comprise four runners who each complete 200 metres or half a lap on a standard 400 metre track. The event is a world record eligible event, but is not a standard event at most track meets, though certain leagues regularly conduct this event as part of their program.

Description

There are multiple formats under which the race can be conducted. *If the track is marked for a four-turn stagger format, the runners can stay in their lanes throughout the race. In this case the outer lanes could appear to start 2/3 of the way through the first turn. The markings for such a special zone should be colored red, though many tracks deviate from the standard marking colors. *On a conventionally marked track, the race can be run starting at the normal 400 metre (and 4 × 100m relay) start line. As a two-turn stagger, the first exchange would take place in the standard second passing zone of the 4 × 100m relay, the second pass taking place in the normal (lane one, extended) 4 × 400m relay zone. After that exchange, the runner would break into lane one and make a third exchange in lane one of the second standard 4 × 100m relay zone. *Indoors, the event is popular because each leg is one lap of a standard 200m indoor track.

World record

The men's world record was set in 2014 at the inaugural IAAF World Relay Championships in Nassau, Bahamas. The record was set by a Jamaican team consisting of

Nickel Ashmeade Nickel Ashmeade (born 7 April 1990) is a Jamaican sprinter who specialises in the 100 and 200 meters. Nickel Ashmeade ran the third leg for Jamaica's 4 × 100 m team at the 2013 World Championships in Moscow which won the gold medal. Nickel ...

Warren Weir __NOTOC__ Warren Weir (born October 1989) is a retired Jamaican sprinter, who specialized in the 200 metres. He was the bronze medallist in the event at the 2012 London Olympics, helping Jamaica sweep the medals. In 2013 at the Moscow World Cha ...

, Jermaine Brown and

Yohan Blake Yohan Blake (born 26 December 1989) is a Jamaican sprinter specialising in the 100-metre and 200-metre sprint races. He won gold at the 100 m at the 2011 World Athletics Championships as the youngest 100 m world champion ever, and a silver m ...

in a time of 1:18.63. The women's world record is 1:27.46, set by a squad called Team USA "Blue" LaTasha Jenkins, LaTasha Colander-Richardson, Nanceen Perry, and Marion Jones on April 29, 2000, at the Penn Relays in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

European record

*Men

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

: 1:21.10 (

Stefano Tilli Stefano Tilli (born 22 August 1962) is a former Italian sprinter who specialized in the 100 and 200 m, twice European indoor champion, three-time semi-finalist at the Olympic Games, and was the world record holder in the 200m indoor. Biography ...

, Carlo Simionato, Giovanni Bongiorni,

Pietro Mennea Pietro Paolo Mennea (; 28 June 1952 – 21 March 2013), nicknamed ("the Arrow of the South"), was an Italian sprinter and politician. He was most successful in the 200m event, winning a gold medal at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, and set a world ...

Cagliari Cagliari (, also , , ; sc, Casteddu ; lat, Caralis) is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name ''Casteddu'' means ''castle''. It has about 155,000 inhabitant ...

29 September 1983 *Women

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In t ...

: 1:28.15 ( Marlies Göhr, Romy Schneider-Müller, Bärbel Eckert-Wöckel,

Marita Koch Marita Koch (later Meier-Koch; born 18 February 1957) is a German former sprint track and field athlete. During her career she collected 16 world records in outdoor sprints as well as 14 world records in indoor events. Her record of 47.60 in th ...

Jena Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a po ...

9 August 1980

All-time top 25

Men

*Updated March 2020. A USA team of

Shawn Crawford Shawn Crawford (born January 14, 1978) is a retired American sprint athlete. He competed in the 100 meters and 200 meters events. In the 200 meter sprint, Crawford won gold at the 2004 Summer Olympics and silver at the 2008 Summer Olym ...

Ramon Clay Ramon Clay (born June 29, 1975) is a retired American sprinter who specialized in the 200 metres. He was born in Memphis, Tennessee. As a senior at Nashville's Hunters Lane High School, despite having the flu during the State Championships, Clay ...

Darvis Patton Darvis "Doc" Darell Patton (born December 4, 1977) is a retired American track and field athlete who competed in sprinting events. He is a two-time US Champion in the 200-meter dash and won the silver medal in the event at the 2003 World Cham ...

and Justin Gatlin ran 1:19.16 at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia on 26 April 2003 but the performance was annulled due to the use of performance enhancing drugs by Ramon Clay

Women

*Updated March 2022.

Notes

References

External links

IAAF list of 4x200-metres-relay records in XML
{{DEFAULTSORT:4 by 200 Metres Relay Track relay races