Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's 4 × 400 metres relay

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Men's 4 × 400 metres relay
at the Games of the XXX Olympiad
Venue Olympic Stadium
Date9–10 August
Teams16
Winning time2:56.72
Medalists
Gold medal icon.svg Chris Brown
Demetrius Pinder
Michael Mathieu
Ramon Miller
Flag of the Bahamas.svg  Bahamas
Silver medal icon.svg Bryshon Nellum
Joshua Mance
Tony McQuay
Angelo Taylor
Manteo Mitchell*
Flag of the United States.svg  United States
Bronze medal icon.svg Lalonde Gordon
Jarrin Solomon
Ade Alleyne-Forte
Deon Lendore
Flag of Trinidad and Tobago.svg  Trinidad and Tobago
  2008
2016  
Video on YouTube Official Video TV-icon-2.svg
Video on YouTube Official Video

The men's 4 × 400 metres relay competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom. The event was held at the Olympic Stadium on 9–10 August. [1] It was won by the Bahamas.

The qualifying round experienced more drama than is normal in these affairs. In the first heat, on the second leg, Kenya's Vincent Mumo Kiilu was boxed in near the back of the pack, with South Africa's Ofentse Mogawane on his shoulder. Coming into the home straight, Kiilu tried to step to the outside, tripping Mogawane, leaving him injured on the track. The much awaited return of Oscar Pistorius waiting to run the third leg never materialized. South Africa filed a protest in which Kenya was disqualified and South Africa was allowed to run in the final. [2] Conveniently, the London Olympic Stadium track has 9 lanes to accommodate such a circumstance, while normally only 8 lanes are used in Championship meets.

At the finish of the first heat, Trinidad and Tobago won the heat, setting their National Record, but host Great Britain was given exactly the same time.

In the second heat the United States led off with Manteo Mitchell. Halfway around the track, Mitchell heard a crack and felt pain.

"It felt like somebody literally just snapped my leg in half. I felt it break.'’

Mitchell continued to the hand off, running a sub-par 46.1 split. It was later revealed that Mitchell did break his left fibula. [3] His American teammates continued on, running three sub 45 splits. Bahamas won the heat, but the Americans qualified, credited with exactly the same time as Bahamas, the fastest time in 2012. Both heats ending with the first and second place teams running the same times.

Also during the second heat, the Dominican Republic failed to make the second exchange between Felix Sánchez and Joel Mejía within the zone and were disqualified. [4] Then halfway through the third leg, Jamaica's Jermaine Gonzales pulled a muscle and was unable to continue.

In the final, which Mitchell was unable to start, Bahamas started off with their best 400 runners, 4th place Chris Brown and 7th place Demetrius Pinder. Brown had a clear lead through the first 350 metres before fading to hand off just slightly ahead of Bryshon Nellum. Over the next leg, Josh Mance brought the American team into contention, with the two teams separating from the rest of the field. On the final straightaway, Pinder extended the lead slightly, his relay split of 43.3 credited as the 7th (now 9th) fastest relay splits in history. On the third leg, Tony McQuay passed Michael Mathieu early on the back stretch and extended the lead by a few metres. McQuay's split was reported to be 43.4. [5] Last minute fill in Angelo Taylor took the baton in the lead, but Ramon Miller ran up to maintain contact. Coming off the final turn, he moved past Taylor with 50 meters to go and won. Trinidad and Tobago again improved their national record in winning the bronze. [6]

Oscar Pistorius ran the anchor leg for the South African team, but they were already well beaten before he received the baton.

The fifth-placed Russian team was later disqualified when two of its members received doping bans in 2017 after a re-test of their samples.[ citation needed ]

Records

Prior to the competition, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows.

World recordFlag of the United States.svg United States
(Andrew Valmon, Quincy Watts, Butch Reynolds, Michael Johnson)
2:54.29 Stuttgart, Germany22 August 1993
Olympic recordFlag of the United States.svg United States
(LaShawn Merritt, Angelo Taylor, David Neville, Jeremy Wariner)
2:55.39 Beijing, China23 August 2008
2012 World leading Flag of the United States.svg University of Florida
(Dedric Dukes, Hugh Graham Jr., Leonardo Seymore, Tony McQuay)
3:00.02 Des Moines, United States9 June 2012
Broken records during the 2012 Summer Olympics
2012 World leadingFlag of the Bahamas.svg  Bahamas
(Chris Brown, Demetrius Pinder, Michael Mathieu, Ramon Miller)
2:56.72London, United Kingdom10 August 2012

The Following new National records were set during this competition

Bahamas National Record Flag of the Bahamas.svg  Chris Brown , Demetrius Pinder , Michael Mathieu , Ramon Miller  (BAH)2:56.72
Trinidad and Tobago National Record Flag of Trinidad and Tobago.svg  Lalonde Gordon , Jarrin Solomon , Ade Alleyne-Forte , Deon Lendore  (TRI)2:59.40

Schedule

All times are British Summer Time (UTC+1)

DateTimeRound
Thursday, 9 August 201211:35Round 1
Friday, 10 August 201221:20Finals

Results

Round 1

Qual. rule: first 3 of each heat (Q) plus the 2 fastest times (q) qualified.

Official Video of Round 1 TV-icon-2.svg
Official Video of Round 1

Heat 1

RankNationCompetitorsTimeNotes
1Flag of Trinidad and Tobago.svg  Trinidad and Tobago Lalonde Gordon, Jarrin Solomon, Ade Alleyne-Forte, Deon Lendore 3:00.38Q, NR
2Flag of the United Kingdom (3-2).svg  Great Britain Nigel Levine, Conrad Williams, Jack Green, Martyn Rooney 3:00.38Q, SB
3Flag of Cuba (3-2).svg  Cuba William Collazo, Raidel Acea, Orestes Rodriguez, Omar Cisneros 3:00.55Q
4Flag of Belgium (civil).svg  Belgium Nils Duerinck, Jonathan Borlée, Antoine Gillet, Kevin Borlée 3:01.70q
5Flag of Poland.svg  Poland Piotr Wiaderek, Marcin Marciniszyn, Michał Pietrzak, Kacper Kozłowski 3:02.86
6Flag of Germany.svg  Germany Jonas Plass, Kamghe Gaba, Eric Kruger, Thomas Schneider 3:03.50
Flag of South Africa.svg  South Africa Shaun de Jager, Ofentse Mogawane, Oscar Pistorius, Willem de Beer DNF*
Flag of Kenya.svg  Kenya Boniface Ontuga Mweresa, Vincent Mumo Kiilu, Boniface Mucheru, Alphas Leken Kishoyian DQ

Note: *South Africa's Ofentse Mogawane was injured in a collision with Kenya's Vincent Mumo Kiilu and failed to hand over to Oscar Pistorius who was supposed to run the third leg.

Heat 2

RankNationCompetitorsTimeNotes
1Flag of the Bahamas.svg  Bahamas Ramon Miller, Demetrius Pinder, Michael Mathieu, Chris Brown 2:58.87Q, SB
2Flag of the United States.svg  United States Manteo Mitchell [a] , Joshua Mance, Tony McQuay, Bryshon Nellum 2:58.87Q, SB
3Flag of Russia.svg  Russia Maksim Dyldin, Denis Alekseyev, Vladimir Krasnov, Pavel Trenikhin 3:02.01Q
4Flag of Venezuela.svg  Venezuela Arturo Ramírez, Alberto Aguilar, Albert Bravo, Jose Melendez 3:02.62q
5Flag of Australia.svg  Australia Steven Solomon, Ben Offereins, Brendan Cole, John Steffensen 3:03.17
6Flag of Japan.svg  Japan Kei Takase, Yuzo Kanemaru, Yoshihiro Azuma, Hiroyuki Nakano 3:03.86
Flag of Jamaica.svg  Jamaica Dane Hyatt, Riker Hylton, Jermaine Gonzales, Errol Nolan DNF
Flag of the Dominican Republic.svg  Dominican Republic Gustavo Cuesta, Félix Sánchez, Joel Mejia, Luguelín Santos DQ
a At approximately the 200-metre mark of the first leg, American runner Manteo Mitchell broke his left fibula. However, he still managed to finish his leg with a time of 46.1. [7]

Final

RankLaneNationCompetitorsTimeNotes
Gold medal icon.svg4Flag of the Bahamas.svg  Bahamas Chris Brown, Demetrius Pinder, Michael Mathieu, Ramon Miller 2:56.72WL, NR
Silver medal icon.svg7Flag of the United States.svg  United States Bryshon Nellum, Joshua Mance, Tony McQuay, Angelo Taylor 2:57.05SB
Bronze medal icon.svg5Flag of Trinidad and Tobago.svg  Trinidad and Tobago Lalonde Gordon, Jarrin Solomon, Ade Alleyne-Forte, Deon Lendore 2:59.40 NR
46Flag of the United Kingdom (3-2).svg  Great Britain Conrad Williams, Jack Green, Dai Greene, Martyn Rooney 2:59.53SB
58Flag of Belgium (civil).svg  Belgium Kevin Borlée, Antoine Gillet, Jonathan Borlée, Michael Bultheel 3:01.83
63Flag of Venezuela.svg  Venezuela Arturo Ramírez, Alberto Aguilar, Albert Bravo, Omar Longart 3:02.18
71Flag of South Africa.svg  South Africa Shaun de Jager, Willem de Beer, Louis van Zyl, Oscar Pistorius 3:03.46SB
9Flag of Cuba (3-2).svg  Cuba William Collazo, Raidel Acea, Orestes Rodriguez, Omar Cisneros DNF
2Flag of Russia.svg  Russia Maksim Dyldin, Denis Alekseyev, Vladimir Krasnov, Pavel Trenikhin DQ (3:00.09)Doping

Note: South Africa was allowed to continue as the ninth finalists on appeal. Louis van Zyl replaced the injured Ofentse Mogawane. [8]

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References

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