1920 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 4 × 400 m (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	4 x 400 meter relay
gender	Men
Attendees	24 athletes from 6 countries
Competition location	Antwerp Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	August 22, 1920 (preliminary round) August 23, 1920 (final)
Medalist  GBR  ZAF  FRA

The men's 4-by-400-meter relay at the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp was held on August 22 and 23, 1920 in the Antwerp Olympic Stadium. 24 athletes took part.

The UK relay won the gold medal. Silver went to the relay of South Africa, bronze to France.

A Swiss relay did not take part, Austria and Germany were excluded from the 1920 games.

Existing records

World record	USA ( Mel Sheppard , Edward Lindberg , Ted Meredith , Charles Reidpath )	3: 16.6 min	Stockholm	July 15, 1912
Olympic record

Conducting the competition

Two preliminary runs were carried out on August 22nd at 10:50 am local time. The final took place on August 23 at 3:00 p.m.

What the organizers thought here is not known. Although only six seasons entered the competition, both prelims were held. All teams involved qualified for the finals.

Note: The relays qualified for the next round are highlighted in light blue.

Prelims

Date: August 22, 1920, 10:50 a.m. local time

Forward 1

space	Season	occupation	time	annotation
1	Belgium	Jules Migeot Omer Corteyn Omer Smet François Morren	3: 38.8 min
2	Great Britain	Cecil Griffiths Robert Lindsay John Ainsworth-Davis Guy Butler	3: 40.9 min
3	France	Géo André Gaston Féry Maurice Delvart André Devaux	3: 46.6 min

Forward 2

space	Season	occupation	time	annotation
1	South African Union	Henry Dafel Clarence Oldfield Jack Oosterlaak Bevil Rudd	3: 38.6 min
2	United States	George Schiller George Bretnall Ted Meredith Frank Shea	3: 40.7 min
3	Sweden	Sven Krokström Sven Malm Eric Sundblad Nils Engdahl	3: 46.4 min

final

space	Season	occupation	time	annotation
1	Great Britain	Cecil Griffiths Robert Lindsay John Ainsworth-Davis Guy Butler	3: 22.2 min
2	South African Union	Henry Dafel Clarence Oldfield Jack Oosterlaak Bevil Rudd	3: 23.4 min
3	France	Géo André Gaston Féry Maurice Delvart André Devaux	3: 23.9 min
4th	United States	George Schiller George Bretnall Ted Meredith Frank Shea	3: 24.0 min
5	Sweden	Sven Krokström Sven Malm Eric Sundblad Nils Engdahl	3: 24.7 min
6th	Belgium	Jules Migeot Omer Corteyn Omer Smet François Morren	3: 25.5 min

Date: August 23, 1920, 3:00 p.m. local time

In the 400-meter individual run it became clear that the US runners had lost their superiority. So they ended up with no medals in fourth place. The British relay won the gold medal ahead of South Africa and France.

In contrast to the 4 x 100 meter relay , the quality of this longer relay was not high. Eight years earlier, the victorious US runners were almost six seconds faster.

After the gold medal in the 400 meter run and bronze over 800 meters , the South African Bevil Rudd received the third medal. So he could take home a complete set of medals.

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 1: 1896-1936, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2nd edition 1970, p. 150f

Web links

• SportsReference 4 × 400 meters , accessed August 31, 2017
• Official report French (PDF), accessed on August 31, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ^ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009 Page 562 ( Memento from June 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
2. ^ Official report, page 107 (French) ( Memento of October 7, 2018 in the Internet Archive )