1964 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 4 × 400 m (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	4 x 400 meter relay
gender	Men
Attendees	68 athletes from 17 countries
Competition location	Tokyo Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	October 20, 1964 (preliminary) October 21, 1964 (final)
Medalist  United States  GBR  TTO

The men's 4 x 400 meter relay at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo was held on October 20 and 21, 1964 in the Tokyo Olympic Stadium. 68 athletes took part in seventeen seasons.

The US relay with Ollan Cassell , Mike Larrabee , Ulis Williams and Henry Carr was Olympic champion in a new world record time . Silver went to the British season with Tim Graham , Adrian Metcalfe , John Cooper and Robbie Brightwell , bronze went to the season from Trinidad and Tobago ( Edwin Skinner , Kent Bernard , Edwin Roberts , Wendell Mottley ).

The German relay qualified for the final and finished fifth there. The Swiss team was eliminated in fourth place in the preliminary round. Relays from Austria and Liechtenstein did not take part.

Existing records

World record	3: 02.2 min	USA ( Jack Yerman , Earl Young , Glenn Davis , Otis Davis )	Rome , Italy	September 8, 1960
Olympic record			Final of Rome , Italy

Conducting the competition

The relays competed on October 20 for a total of three preliminary runs. The two best seasons and the two fastest seasons qualified for the final on October 21st.

Time schedule

October 20, 3:00 p.m .: Preliminary
October 21, 2:50 p.m .: Final

Note: All times are Tokyo local time (UTC + 9)

The relays directly qualified for the next round are highlighted in light blue, the relays qualified over time are highlighted in light green.

Prelims

Date: October 20, 1964, from 3 p.m.

Weather conditions: cloudy, approx. 16 ° C, humidity approx. 80%

Forward 1

space	Season	occupation	time	annotation
1	United States	Henry Carr Ollan Cassell Mike Larrabee Ulis Williams	3: 05.3 min
2	Soviet Union	Hryhorij Swerbetov Viktor Bychkov Vasyl Anissimov Vadym Archyptschuk	3: 07.4 min
3	France	Germain Nelzy Michel Hiblot Bernard Martin Jean-Pierre Boccardo	3: 07.5 min
4th	India	Makhan Singh Amrit Pal Ajmer Singh Milkha Singh	3: 08.8 min
5	Japan	Tōru Honda Kimitada Hayase Yoshihiro Amano Masami Yoshida	3: 12.3 min
6th	Senegal	Daour M'baye Guèye Daniel Thiaw Mamadou N'Diaye Papa M'Baye N'Diaye	3: 12.5 min

Forward 2

space	Season	occupation	time	annotation
1	Trinidad and Tobago	Edwin Skinner Kent Bernard Edwin Roberts Wendell Mottley	3: 05.0 min
2	Poland	Marian Filipiuk Ireneusz Kluczek Stanisław Swatowski Andrzej Badeński	3: 07.2 min
3	Italy	Bruno Bianchi Salvatore Morale Roberto Frinolli Sergio Bello	3: 07.6 min
4th	Australia	Peter Vassella Gary Knoke Gary Eddy Ken Roche	3: 08.2 min

Forward 3

space	Season	occupation	time	annotation
1	Great Britain	Tim Graham Adrian Metcalfe John Cooper Robbie Brightwell	3: 04.7 min
2	Germany	Jörg Jüttner Hans-Ullrich Schulz Johannes Schmitt Manfred Children	3: 04.9 min
3	Jamaica	Laurie Khan Malcolm Spence Melville Spence George Kerr	3: 05.3 min
4th	Switzerland	Jean-Louis Descloux Hansjörg Bosshard Marius Theiler Peter Laeng	3: 09.3 min
5	Ghana	James Addy Brobbey Mensah Sam Bugri Ebenezer Quartey	3: 10.4 min
6th	Malaysia	Karu Selvaratnam Kuda Ditta Mohamed bin Abdul Rahman Victor Asirvatham	3: 17.6 min
7th	Thailand	Somsak Thongsuk Nipon Pensuvapap Adisorn Vitsudhamakul Manut Bumrungphuk	3: 18.4 min

final

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	United States	Ollan Cassell Mike Larrabee Ulis Williams Henry Carr	3: 00.7 min	WR
2	Great Britain	Tim Graham Adrian Metcalfe John Cooper Robbie Brightwell	3: 01.6 min
3	Trinidad and Tobago	Edwin Skinner Kent Bernard Edwin Roberts Wendell Mottley	3: 01.7 min
4th	Jamaica	Laurie Khan Malcolm Spence Melville Spence George Kerr	3: 02.3 min
5	Germany	Jörg Jüttner Hans-Ullrich Schulz Johannes Schmitt Manfred Children	3: 04.3 min
6th	Poland	Marian Filipiuk Ireneusz Kluczek Stanisław Swatowski Andrzej Badeński	3: 05.3 min
7th	Soviet Union	Hryhorij Swerbetov Viktor Bychkov Vasyl Anissimov Vadym Archyptschuk	3: 05.9 min
8th	France	Michel Hiblot Bernard Martin Germain Nelzy Jean-Pierre Boccardo	3: 07.4 min

Date: October 21, 1964, 2:50 p.m.

Weather conditions: cloudy, approx. 20 ° C, humidity approx. 72%

With the Olympic champions over 200 meters , Henry Carr, and 400 meters , Mike Larrabee, as well as the Olympic champions from 1960 , Otis Davis - 400 meters - and Glenn Davis - 400 meters hurdles - the US relay was the clear favorite.

In the final there was a change of position in the US team. Carr, who had started as the starting runner in the preliminary run, was now used as the final runner. And this race turned out to be a lot more exciting than expected. At the first change, the British relay led by a meter. The second Briton, Adrian Metcalfe, initially increased the lead. But Larrabee pulled past him and when the change was made, the US team was almost five meters ahead. Ulis Williams had to give everything to stay at the top, which he succeeded. He fell to the target and even injured himself in the process. Four seasons were at the top only six tenths of a second apart from each other before the final round: USA ahead of Trinidad and Tobago, then Jamaica and Great Britain in fourth place. Carr now played to his sprint strength and in the end did not let his opponents pass, he was able to fend off a final attack by Wendell Mottley. The US relay was Olympic champion in a new world record time . Behind it it was still very tight. Three top-class final runners battled it out for the two remaining medals: Mottley - Trinidad and Tobago, 400m silver medalist, George Kerr - Jamaica, 800m Olympiad and Robbie Brightwell - Great Britain, 400m Olympiad. In the end, Brightwell had the most reserves and won silver for the British ahead of Mottley with bronze for Trinidad and Tobago. The Jamaica team stayed just a tenth of a second above the previous world record and still had to be content with fourth place. For Robbie Brightwell, the joy of the medal, which he narrowly missed in the 400-meter individual race, was especially great after his bride Ann Packer became Olympic champion in the 800 meters.

All relays on the medal ranks undercut the world record that was valid up to then.

In the eleventh Olympic final there was the eighth Olympic victory for the USA.

For Trinidad and Tobago it was the first medal in this discipline.

Split times and individual running times (in s / min) - unofficial :

• Change 1 - 45.9 Great Britain. (Graham) / 46.0 USA (Cassell) / 46.0 Trinidad and Tobago (TTO) (Skinner) / 46.1 Jamaica (Kahn) / 46.8 USSR (Swerbetow) / 47.1 Ges.Deutschl. (Jüttner) / 47.1 France (Hiblot) / 47.5 Poland (Filipiuk)
• Change 2 - 1: 30.8 USA (Larrabee 44.8) / 1: 31.2 TTO (Bernard 45.3) / 1: 31.4 GBR (Metcalfe 45.5) / 1: 31.5 JAM (Mal Spence 45.4) / 1: 32.8 EUA (Schulz 45.7) / 1: 33.1 URS (Bytschkow 46.3) / 1: 33.5 FRA (Martin 46.4) / 1: 33.5 POL (Kluczek 46.0)
• Change 3 - 2: 16.2 USA (Williams 45.4) / 2: 16.7 TTO (Roberts 45.4) / 2: 16.7 JAM (Mal Spence 45.2) / 2: 16.8 GBR ( Cooper 45.4) / 2: 18.7 EUA (Schmitt 45.9) / 2: 19.6 URS (Anissimow 46.5) / 2: 19.8 POL (Swatowski 46.3) / 2: 20.6 FRA (Nelzy 47.1)
• Goal - 3: 00.7 USA (Carr 44.5) / 3: 01.5 GBR (Brightwell 44.8) / 3: 01.7 TTO (Mottley 45.0) / 3: 02.3 JAM (Kerr 45 , 6) / 3: 04.3 EUA (children 45.6) / 3: 05.3 POL (Badeński 45.5) / 3: 05.9 URS (Archyptschuk 46.3) / 3: 07.4 FRA ( Boccardo 46.8)

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, pp. 293–295

Video

• Men's 4x400m relay race Tokyo 1964 , published August 16, 2012 on youtube.com, accessed October 27, 2017

Web links

• SportsReference 4 × 400 m , accessed on October 27, 2017
• Official report of the Olympic Games 1964 p. 42f engl. (PDF), accessed on October 27, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009 Page 562 (Engl.) ( Memento of 29 June 2011 at the Internet Archive ), accessed on 27 October 2017
2. ↑ Official report of the 1964 Olympic Games ( memento of the original from June 30, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. P. 17 (English) at library.la84.org (PDF), accessed on October 27, 2017 
3. ↑ Official report of the 1964 Olympic Games ( memento of the original from June 30, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. P. 42f (English) from library.la84.org (PDF), accessed on October 27, 2017 
4. ↑ Official report of the 1964 Olympic Games ( memento of the original from June 30, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. P. 43 (English) from library.la84.org (PDF), accessed on October 27, 2017 
5. ↑ SportsReference , accessed October 27, 2017
6. ↑ Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, p. 295