The Men's 4 × 400 metres relay event at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Daegu Stadium on 1 and 2 September. Thursday and Friday. This is a change in schedule from previous years when all the relays were at the end of the program. This might necessitate a change in strategy to allow for team members involved in other events.
This was the fastest qualifying round in the history of the World Championships. All eight qualifying teams were faster than the fastest qualifier two years before. All but final qualifier Kenya were faster than the Bronze medal team at that championship. United States ran the world leading time, which sounds more impressive than it really was since the previous leading time was by an American collegiate team (though only seven of these national teams were better than that mark in this entire competition). The South African team set their National Record, led off by double amputee Oscar Pistorius. After the heat, South Africa elected not to include Pistorius in the final.
In the finals, none of the medal winning teams matched their times from the qualifying heats. Jonathan Borlée put Belgium in the early lead. After the first handoff, they were passed quickly by Ofentse Mogawane putting South Africa into the lead followed by Jermaine Gonzales of Jamaica. Five time defending champion United States, running hurdlers Bershawn Jackson and Angelo Taylor, was a slow third place behind South Africa's Willem de Beer watching Jamaican Riker Hylton separate from the field, but Hylton tied up on the home stretch and the race tightened going into the final handoff. Taking the baton in the unfamiliar third place, Silver medalist LaShawn Merritt ran a controlled race in lane one moving into position for one final surge on the home stretch. Merritt was actually too close to the runners ahead of him and had to dart to the right to go around to pass the two teams in green and yellow to the finish. South Africa anchor, hurdler L. J. van Zyl, held off Jamaica's Leford Green for the silver medal.
Medalists GoldSilverBronzeGreg NixonBershawn JacksonAngelo TaylorLaShawn MerrittJamaal Torrance*Michael Berry*Shane VictorOfentse MogawaneWillem de BeerL. J. van ZylOscar Pistorius*Allodin FothergillJermaine GonzalesRiker HyltonLeford GreenLansford Spence*
Records World record (Andrew Valmon, Quincy Watts, Harry Reynolds, Michael Johnson)2:54.29Stuttgart, Germany22 August 1993Championship record (Andrew Valmon, Quincy Watts, Harry Reynolds, Michael Johnson)2:54.29Stuttgart, Germany22 August 1993World leadingTexas A&M University(Bryan Miller, Tabarie Henry, Michael Preble, Demetrius Pinder)3:00.45Austin, United States9 April 2011African record (Clement Chukwu, Jude Monye, Sunday Bada, Enefiok Udo-Obong)2:58.68Sydney, Australia30 September 2000Asian record (Shunji Karube, Koji Ito, Jun Osakada, Shigekazu Omori)3:00.76Atlanta, United States3 August 1996North, Central American and Caribbean record (Andrew Valmon, Quincy Watts, Harry Reynolds, Michael Johnson)2:54.29Stuttgart, Germany22 August 1993South American record (Eronilde de Araújo, Cleverson da Silva, Claudinei da Silva, Sanderlei Parrela)2:58.56Winnipeg, Canada30 July 1999European record (Iwan Thomas, Jamie Baulch, Mark Richardson, Roger Black)2:56.60Atlanta, United States3 August 1996Oceanian record (Bruce Frayne, Gary Minihan, Richard Mitchell, Darren Clark)2:59.70Los Angeles, United States11 August 1984
Qualification standards A timeB time 3:04.00
Schedule Date Time Round 1 September 2011 12:30 Heats 2 September 2011 21:15 Final
Results KEY:qFastest non-qualifiersQQualifiedNRNational recordPBPersonal bestSBSeasonal best
Heats Qualification: First 3 of each heat (Q) plus the 2 fastest times (q) advance to the final.
Rank Heat Nation Athletes Time Notes 1 1 Greg Nixon, Jamaal Torrance, Michael Berry, LaShawn Merritt 2:58.82 Q, WL 2 1 Allodin Fothergill, Riker Hylton, Lansford Spence, Leford Green 2:59.13 Q, SB 3 1 Oscar Pistorius, Ofentse Mogawane, Willem de Beer, Shane Victor 2:59.21 Q, NR 4 1 Richard Strachan, Nigel Levine, Christopher Clarke, Martyn Rooney 3:00.38 q 5 1 Jonas Plass, Kamghe Gaba, Eric Krüger, Thomas Schneider 3:00.68 q 6 2 Antoine Gillet, Jonathan Borlée, Nils Duerinck, Kévin Borlée 3:00.71 Q, SB 7 2 Maksim Dyldin, Konstantin Svechkar, Pavel Trenikhin, Denis Alekseyev 3:00.81 Q, SB 8 2 Vincent Kiplangat Kosgei, Anderson Mureta Mutegi, Vincent Mumo Kiilu, Mark Mutai 3:00.97 Q, SB 9 2 Ramon Miller, Avard Moncur, Andrae Williams, LaToy Williams 3:01.54 10 2 Ben Offereins, Tristan Thomas, Steven Solomon, Sean Wroe 3:01.56 SB 11 2 Kacper Kozłowski, Piotr Wiaderek, Jakub Krzewina, Marcin Marciniszyn 3:01.84 SB 12 1 Zwede Hewitt, Jarrin Solomon, Deon Lendore, Renny Quow 3:02.47 13 1 Kei Takase, Yuzo Kanemaru, Yusuke Ishitsuka, Hideyuki Hirose 3:02.64 SB 14 2 Nicolas Fillon, Teddy Venel, Mamoudou Hanne, Yoann Décimus 3:03.68 15 1 Park Bong-Go, Lim Chan-Ho, Lee Jun, Seong Hyeok-Je 3:04.05 NR 16 2 Ismail Al-Sabani, Yousef Ahmed Masrahi, Hamed Al-Bishi, Mohammed Al-Salhi 3:05.65 SB
Final Rank Lane Nation Athletes Time Notes 5 Greg Nixon, Bershawn Jackson, Angelo Taylor, LaShawn Merritt 2:59.31 8 Shane Victor, Ofentse Mogawane, Willem de Beer, L. J. van Zyl 2:59.87 4 Allodin Fothergill, Jermaine Gonzales, Riker Hylton, Leford Green 3:00.10 4 3 Maksim Dyldin, Konstantin Svechkar, Pavel Trenikhin, Denis Alekseyev 3:00.22 SB 5 6 Jonathan Borlée, Antoine Gillet, Nils Duerinck, Kévin Borlée 3:00.41 SB 6 7 Vincent Kiplangat Kosgei, Vincent Mumo Kiilu, Anderson Mureta Mutegi, Mark Mutai 3:01.15 7 1 Richard Strachan, Nigel Levine, Christopher Clarke, Martyn Rooney 3:01.16 8 2 Jonas Plass, Kamghe Gaba, Miguel Rigau, Thomas Schneider 3:01.37
References
External links Relay results at IAAF website