The anchor leg is the final position in a relay race. Typically, the anchor leg of a relay is given to the fastest or most experienced competitor on a team. The athlete completing the anchor leg of a relay is responsible for making up ground on the race-leader or preserving the lead already secured by their teammates. [1] [2] [3]
Andre De Grasse has two notable anchor leg times of 8.79 in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, and 8.89 in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
"Bullet" Bob Hayes ran anchor leg for the United States 4 × 100 metres relay team in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Receiving the baton in fifth place, Hayes pulled ahead of four runners to win the race. A French rival, Jocelyn Delecour, remarked to the American lead-off runner Paul Drayton "You haven't got anything except Hayes", and Drayton responded "That's all we need, pal." [4]
Carl Lewis never lost a race when he anchored the American 4 × 100 m relay team.[ citation needed ] He regularly ran under 9 seconds for his anchor legs and helped the team break the world record in the 4 × 100 m relay five times. [5] The record set by the U.S. at the 1992 Summer Olympics of 37.40 seconds stood for 16 years. [6]
Anchoring the U.S. sprint relay team at the 1984 Summer Olympics, Evelyn Ashford ran a reported 9.77 seconds, the fastest time ever for a woman over 100 m.[ citation needed ] The U.S. team of Alice Brown (first leg), Jeanette Bolden (second leg) and Chandra Cheeseborough (third leg) won by the biggest margin in the event's history.[ citation needed ]
Usain Bolt anchored the 2012 Jamaican 4 × 100 m relay and helped set a new world record with a time 36.84 seconds. [7]
After she placed eighth individually in the 100 m, Pam Marshall ran the anchor leg for the American 4 × 100 m team at the 1987 World Athletics Championships in Rome and beat Marlies Göhr in the final with an anchor leg timed at 10.11 s to Göhr's 10.41 s.[ citation needed ]
In some cases, athletes who are not top performers in individual events excel when given the responsibility of anchoring a relay. Phil Brown, a U.K. 400 m runner, won Olympic, World and European championship medals as the anchor leg runner for his national 4 × 400 m relay team [8] despite never having won a medal and rarely having advanced beyond the preliminary rounds individually.[ citation needed ]
British hurdling specialist Kriss Akabusi swapped places with normal Great Britain anchor, Olympic 400 metre silver medalist Roger Black, in a race where he caught and passed 400 metre world champion Antonio Pettigrew to win Great Britain the World Championship gold in Tokyo. [9] Due to the final legs of 4 × 400 m relay being run without lanes, the anchor may require some of the techniques normally associated with a middle distance runner, including tactical awareness, overtaking technique and physical strength to hold off other athletes, as well as basic speed.[ citation needed ]
Rank | Time | Athlete | Country | Date | Place | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 8.65 | Usain Bolt | Jamaica | 2 May 2015 | Nassau | [10] |
2 | 8.68 | Asafa Powell | Jamaica | 22 August 2008 | Beijing | |
3 | 8.78 | Akani Simbine | 🇿🇦 South Africa | 10 August 2024 | Paris | |
4 | 8.80 | Richard Thompson | Trinidad and Tobago | 3 May 2014 | Nassau | |
5 | 8.83 | Ryan Bailey | United States | 2 May 2015 | Nassau | |
6 | 8.85 | Carl Lewis | United States | 8 August 1992 | Barcelona | |
Filippo Tortu | Italy | 6 August 2021 | Tokyo | |||
7 | 8.89 | Andre De Grasse | Canada | 10 August 2024 | Paris | |
8 | 8.92 | Leroy Burrell | United States | 22 August 1993 | Stuttgart | |
Yancarlos Martínez | Dominican Republic | 2 May 2015 | Nassau | |||
9 | 8.93 | Donovan Bailey | Canada | 3 August 1996 | Atlanta | |
10 | 8.95 | Linford Christie | United Kingdom | 1 October 1988 | Seoul |
Bob Hayes' anchor time in 1964 has been the stuff of legend for decades, but its hand clocking of 8.5 s is not the official time. With modern video reviews, it has been estimated at 9.00 s.
At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Jason Lezak was the oldest male on the U.S. swim team. He anchored the U.S. 4 × 100 m freestyle relay team that won the gold medal and set a new world record. [11]
At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Michael Phelps swam the anchor leg of the 4 × 200 m relay becoming the most decorated Olympian of all time with his 15th gold medal and 19th overall. [12] He returned in 2016 to again anchor the 4 ×200 m freestyle relay, claiming his 21st gold and 25th medal. [13]
Evelyn Ashford is an American retired track and field athlete, the 1984 Olympic champion in the 100-meter dash, and the world record-holder in the 60-yard dash. She ran under the 11-second barrier over 30 times and was the first woman to run under 11 seconds in an Olympic Games. Ashford has the distinction of owning the longest unbroken athletics record.
Roger Anthony BlackMBE is an English former athlete who competed internationally for Great Britain and England. During his athletics career, he won individual silver medals in the 400 metres sprint at both the Olympic Games and World Championships, two individual gold medals at the European Championships, and 4 × 400 metres relay gold medals at both the World and European Championships.
Angelo F. Taylor is an American track and field athlete, winner of 400-meter hurdles at the 2000 and 2008 Summer Olympics. His personal record for the hurdles event is 47.25 seconds. His time puts him in a tie with Félix Sánchez for the #14 performer of all time. Sánchez also won two Olympic gold medals, in 2004 between Taylor's two golds and 2012, immediately following. Taylor also has a 400-meter dash best of 44.05 seconds, ranking him as the #25 performer of all time, superior to any other athlete who has made a serious effort in the 400 metres hurdles. He won the bronze medal in the 400 m at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics.
Marlies Göhr 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 twelve straight years, ranking first in six of those years. During this time she won many medals as a sprinter at major international championships and set several world records.
The 4 × 100 metres relay or sprint relay is an athletics track event run in lanes over one lap of the track with four runners completing 100 metres each. The first runners must begin in the same stagger as for the individual 400 m race. Each runner carries a relay baton. Before 2018, the baton had to be passed within a 20 m changeover box, preceded by a 10-metre acceleration zone. With a rule change effective November 1, 2017, that zone was modified to include the acceleration zone as part of the passing zone, making the entire zone 30 metres in length. The outgoing runner cannot touch the baton until it has entered the zone, and the incoming runner cannot touch it after it has left the zone. The zone is usually marked in yellow, frequently using lines, triangles or chevrons. While the rule book specifies the exact positioning of the marks, the colours and style are only "recommended". While most legacy tracks will still have the older markings, the rule change still uses existing marks. Not all governing body jurisdictions have adopted the rule change.
Jason Edward Lezak is an American former competitive swimmer and swimming executive. As a swimmer, Lezak specialized in the 50-meter and 100-meter freestyle races. His pro career lasted for nearly fifteen years, spanning four Olympic games and eight Olympic medals.
Kezie Uchechukwu Duru Akabusi, MBE, known as Kriss Akabusi, is a British broadcaster and former sprint and hurdling track and field athlete.
Philip "Phil" Andrew Brown is a British retired athlete who competed mainly in the 400 metres.
Alice Regina Brown is a retired American sprinter. Competing at the 1984 and 1988 Olympics she won two relay gold medals and an individual silver medal. She attended John Muir High School and California State University, Northridge.
These are the official results of the Men's 4 × 400 metres event at the 1991 IAAF World Championships in Tokyo, Japan. There were a total number of sixteen participating nations, with three qualifying heats and the final held on Sunday 1 September 1991. The final was won by Great Britain in what was, at the time, the fourth fastest time in history. Going into the meeting, the USA 4 × 400 metres team hadn't lost at a major championships in over seven years. Britain, by contrast, hadn't won a gold medal in the event since the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
Alain Bernard is a former French swimmer from Aubagne, Bouches-du-Rhône.
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The men's 4 × 100 metre freestyle relay event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 10–11 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China.
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