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), competitio ...

track event 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 professional or collegiate track meets, mainly being found at the high school level, 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 × 100 m relay) start line. As a two-turn stagger, the first exchange would take place in the standard second passing zone of the 4 × 100 m relay, the second pass taking place in the normal (lane one, extended) 4 × 400 m 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 × 100 m relay zone. *Indoors, the event is popular because each leg is one lap of a standard 200 m indoor track. The imperial distance analogue to the event is the 4 × 220 yards relay, contested at a total of which is slightly longer than the 800 m metric distance. It was contested at the AIAW Indoor Track and Field Championships and other American and British meets until the switch to metric in the 1980s.

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 retired Jamaican sprinter who specialised 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 ...

, Warren Weir, Jermaine Brown and

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

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 Marion Lois Jones (born October 12, 1975), also known as Marion Jones-Thompson, is an American former world champion track-and-field athlete and former professional basketball player. She won three gold medals and two bronze medals at the 2000 ...

on April 29, 2000, at the

Penn Relays The Penn Relays (officially The Penn Relay Carnival) is the oldest and largest track and field competition in the United States, hosted annually since April 21, 1895 by the University of Pennsylvania at Franklin Field in Philadelphia. In 2012 ...

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

European record

*Men

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

: 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 200 m 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 200 m event, winning a gold medal at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, and setting a wor ...

Cagliari Cagliari (, , ; ; ; Latin: ''Caralis'') is an Comune, Italian municipality and the capital and largest city of the island of Sardinia, an Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Italy. It has about 146,62 ...

29 September 1983 *Women

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

: 1:28.15 (

Marlies Göhr Marlies Göhr ( Oelsner, born 21 March 1958 in Gera) is a former East German track and field athlete, the winner of the 100 metres at the inaugural World Championships in 1983. She ranked in the top 10 of the 100 m world rankings for twe ...

, Romy Schneider-Müller, Bärbel Eckert-Wöckel,

Marita Koch Marita Koch (later Meier-Koch; born 18 February 1957) is a German former Sprint (running), sprint track and field athlete. During her career she set 16 List of world records in athletics, world records in outdoor sprints as well as 14 world re ...

Jena Jena (; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany 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 in ...

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 O ...

, Ramon Clay, Darvis Patton 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 April 2024.

Notes

References

External links

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