The men's 4 × 100 metres relay event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place on 5 and 6 August 2021 at the Olympic Stadium. There were 16 competing relay teams, with each team having 5 members from which 4 were selected in each round.
Summary During the final, Chijindu Ujah gave Great Britain the lead out of the blocks, Japan's Shuhei Tada and Canada's Aaron Brown also gaining relative to the stagger. At the first handoff, Ujah passed efficiently to Zharnel Hughes, pulling away from Jamaica to their inside. On the outside, Ryota Yamagata left too early for Tada to catch him inside the zone, Japan unable to make the handoff and ending their race. Down the backstretch, 2020 Olympic 100 metres champion Marcell Jacobs received the baton from Lorenzo Patta and opened up space on Xie Zhenye to his inside, pulling Italy into contention, with Canada's pass from Jerome Blake to Brendon Rodney keeping them in the mix. China loaded up their third leg with ace Su Bingtian pulling back some ground on GBR's Richard Kilty, while Jamaica had Yohan Blake, the second fastest man in history, running the bend. Kilty passed efficiently to Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake, while Wu Zhiqiang had to slow down and look back to find Su with the baton, costing China the chance to battle for gold. Italy passed from Fausto Desalu to Filippo Tortu about metre down from team GB. Behind China, Jamaica and Germany, Rodney passed to Canada's star Andre De Grasse almost 5 metres behind. From there De Grasse took off, passing three teams to move into third place, while over the final 50 metres Tortu produced a burst of speed combined with a perfectly executed final dip to take gold on the line. Italy had set a new national record with a time of 37.50, the 19th fastest performance ever and the 2021 world lead. China equalled their national record with 37.79, while Ghana was disqualified from 7th place because of a faulty baton pass.
During the Olympics, British athlete CJ Ujah tested positive for anabolic agent ostarine and steroid-like S-23 (drug), and was provisionally suspended, confirmed on 14 September by B-sample. On 18 February 2022, the British team was disqualified and officially stripped of the silver medal. The International Olympic Committee requested all members of Great Britain's relay team to return their medals. Canada's relay team was upgraded to silver, and China's relay team was upgraded to bronze.Events from Sochi 2014 and Tokyo 2020 to have medals and diplomas reallocated The medal reallocation ceremony of the bronze medal was held at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Stadium on 4 October 2023 after all the events of the Asian Games ended on that day, along with the medal reallocation ceremony of women's 20 km walk of London 2012.
Background This was the 25th 4 x 100 relay; it has been run every Olympics since 1912.
Qualification
National Olympic Committees (NOCs) could qualify one relay team in one of three following ways: The top 8 NOCs at the 2019 World Athletics Championships qualified a relay team. The top 8 NOCs at the 2021 World Athletics Relays qualified a relay team. Where an NOC placed in the top 8 at both the 2019 World Championships and the 2021 World Relays, the quota place was allocated to the world top list as of 29 June 2021. In this case, 4 teams did so, so there are 4 places available through the world rankings.
A total of five athletes may be entered for a relay team. Should a NOC have also entered individual athletes in the corresponding individual event (100 m), the entered individual athletes must be included in the total of five (5) athletes entered for the relay event. In addition of five, NOCs can nominate a maximum of one alternate athlete for each team.
The qualifying period was originally from 1 May 2019 to 29 June 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the period was suspended from 6 April 2020 to 30 November 2020, with the end date extended to 29 June 2021. The qualifying time standards could be obtained in various meets during the given period that have the approval of the IAAF. Both indoor and outdoor meets are eligible. The most recent Area Championships may be counted in the ranking, even if not during the qualifying period.
Qualified teams A total of 16 NOCs qualified. Entry number: 16 teams of 5 athletes each (80), plus alternates. Qualification standard No. of teams Qualified teams 2019 World Championships in AthleticsFinalists8 2021 World Athletics RelaysFurther finalists4 World Athletics Top List(as of 29 June 2021)4 37.91 at Khalifa International Stadium, Doha (QAT) - 04 OCT 201938.15 at Khalifa International Stadium, Doha (QAT) - 04 OCT 201938.46 in Lima (PER) - 09 AUG 201938.47 at International, Yokohama (JPN) - 11 MAY 2019
Top list before competition Source: 4x100 Metres Relay - men - senior - outdoor - 2021
38.27 , 1st in Gateshead (GBR), on 13 July 2021 38.29 , 1st in Shenzhen (CHN), on 20 March 2021 38.29 , 2nd in Gateshead, on 13 July 2021 38.32 , 1st at Sportanlage am Weinweg, Regensburg (GER) 20 June 2021 38.33 , 1st at GC Foster College, Spanish Town (JAM) 8 May 2021 38.45 , 1h2 at Stadion Śląski, Chorzów (POL) 1 May 2021 38.45 , 1h3 at Stadion Śląski, Chorzów (POL) 1 May 2021 38.49 , 2h3 at Stadion Śląski, Chorzów (POL) 1 May 2021 (DQ) 38.53 , 1st at Yabatech Sport Complex, Lagos (NGR) 27 June 2021, first non-qualifier 38.56 , 1st at Centre sportif du Bout-du-Monde, Genève (SUI) 12 June 2021 38.60 Florida State Seminoles (), 3rd at Hayward Field, Eugene (USA) 11 June 2021
Season's bests for the other qualified teams: 38.79 , 2h1 at Stadion Śląski, Chorzów (POL), on 1 May 2021 38.94 , 2f1 in Cluj-Napoca (ROU), on 19 June 2021 38.98 , 3h2 at Stadion Śląski, Chorzów (POL), on 1 May 2021 39.06 , 4h2 at Stadion Śląski, Chorzów (POL), on 1 May 2021 39.08 , 3h3 at Stadion Śląski, Chorzów (POL), on 1 May 2021 39.63 , 2nd at The Bahamas National Stadium, Nassau (BAH) 28 June 2021
Competition format The event continued to use the two-round format introduced in 2012.
Records Prior to this competition, the existing world, Olympic, and area records were as follows.
Area Time (s) Athlete Nation Africa 37.65 Asia 37.43 Europe 37.36 North, Central America and Caribbean 36.84 Oceania 38.17 South America 37.72
The following national records were established during the competition:
Country Athlete Round Time Notes Italy Lorenzo Patta, Marcell Jacobs, Fausto Desalu, Filippo Tortu Heats 37.95 Final 37.50 Ghana Sean Safo-Antwi, Benjamin Azamati-Kwaku, Emmanuel Yeboah, Joseph Amoah Heats 38.08 Denmark Simon Hansen, Tazana Kamanga-Dyrbak, Kojo Musah, Frederik Schou-Nielsen Heats 38.16 China Tang Xingqiang, Xie Zhenye, Su Bingtian, Wu Zhiqiang Final 37.79 =NR
Schedule All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+9)
The men's 4 × 100 metres relay took place over two consecutive days.
Date Time Round Thursday, 5 August 2021 11:30 Heats Friday, 6 August 2021 22:50 Final
Results
Results are from World Athletics:
Heats Qualification Rules: First 3 in each heat (Q) and the next 2 fastest (q) advance to the Final
Heat 1 RankLaneNationCompetitorsReaction TimeNotes 1 5 Jevaughn Minzie, Julian Forte, Yohan Blake, Oblique Seville .146 37.82 , 2 4 Shuhei Tada, Ryota Yamagata, Yoshihide Kiryū, Yuki Koike .147 38.16 , 3 9 Mouhamadou Fall, Jimmy Vicaut, Méba-Mickaël Zeze, Ryan Zeze .156 38.18 4 2 Rodrigo do Nascimento, Felipe Bardi dos Santos, Derick Silva, Paulo André de Oliveira .140 38.34 5 8 Kion Benjamin, Eric Harrison Jr., Akanni Hislop, Richard Thompson .150 38.63 – 6 Joris van Gool, Taymir Burnet, Chris Garia, Churandy Martina .146 – 7 Clarence Munyai, Shaun Maswanganyi, Chederick van Wyk, Akani Simbine .150 – 3 CJ Ujah, Zharnel Hughes, Richard Kilty, Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake .152 (38.02)
Heat 2 RankLaneNationCompetitorsReaction TimeNotes 1 4 Tang Xingqiang, Xie Zhenye, Su Bingtian, Wu Zhiqiang .152 37.92 (37.916) , 2 9 Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake, Brendon Rodney, Andre De Grasse .177 37.92 (37.918) , 3 5 Lorenzo Patta, Marcell Jacobs, Fausto Desalu, Filippo Tortu .170 37.95 , 4 6 Julian Reus, Joshua Hartmann, Deniz Almas, Lucas Ansah-Peprah .134 38.06 , 5 8 Sean Safo-Antwi, Benjamin Azamati-Kwaku, Emmanuel Yeboah, Joseph Amoah .137 38.08 , 6 3 Trayvon Bromell, Fred Kerley, Ronnie Baker, Cravon Gillespie .148 38.10 7 7 Simon Hansen, Tazana Kamanga-Dyrbak, Kojo Musah, Frederik Schou-Nielsen .143 38.16 – 2 Ertan Özkan, Jak Ali Harvey, Kayhan Özer, Ramil Guliyev .146
Final RankLaneNationCompetitorsReaction TimeNotes 8 Lorenzo Patta, Marcell Jacobs, Fausto Desalu, Filippo Tortu 0.154 37.50 , 4 Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake, Brendon Rodney, Andre De Grasse 0.148 37.70 7 Tang Xingqiang, Xie Zhenye, Su Bingtian, Wu Zhiqiang 0.153 37.79 = 4 5 Jevaughn Minzie, Julian Forte, Yohan Blake, Oblique Seville 0.158 37.84 5 3 Julian Reus, Joshua Hartmann, Deniz Almas, Lucas Ansah-Peprah 0.136 38.12 – 9 Shuhei Tada, Ryota Yamagata, Yoshihide Kiryū, Yuki Koike 0.139 – 2 Sean Safo-Antwi, Benjamin Azamati-Kwaku, Emmanuel Yeboah, Joseph Amoah 0.160 DQ 6 CJ Ujah, Zharnel Hughes, Richard Kilty, Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake 0.141 (37.51)
References