1968 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 4 × 100 m (women)

sport	athletics
discipline	4 x 100 meter relay
gender	Women
Attendees	60 athletes from 15 countries
Competition location	Estadio Olímpico Universitario
Competition phase	October 19, 1968 (preliminary) October 20, 1968 (final)
Medalists  United States  CUB  URS

The women's 4 x 100 meter relay at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City was held on October 19 and 20, 1968 in the Estadio Olímpico Universitario . 60 athletes took part in 15 relays.

The US relay team with Barbara Ferrell , Margaret Bailes , Mildrette Netter and Wyomia Tyus was Olympic champion in a new world record time ahead of the relay teams from Cuba ( Marlene Elejarde , Fulgencia Romay , Violeta Quesada , Miguelina Cobián ) and the Soviet Union with Lyudmila Scharkowa , Galina Bucharina , Vera Popkova and Lyudmila Samotjossowa .

For the Federal Republic of Germany - officially Germany - Renate Meyer , Jutta Stöck , Rita Jahn and Ingrid Becker started . This season finished sixth in the final.
Relays from the GDR - officially East Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein did not take part.

Existing records

World record	43.6 s	Soviet Union ( Lyudmila Scharkowa , Galina Bucharina , Wera Popkowa , Lyudmila Samotjossowa )	Mexico City , Mexico	September 27, 1968
		Cuba ( Marlene Elejarde , Fulgencia Romay , Violeta Quesada , Miguelina Cobián )		5th October 1968
Olympic record	43.9 s	USA ( Willye White , Wyomia Tyus , Marilyn White , Edith McGuire )	Tokyo finals , Japan	October 21, 1964

Note: The Olympic record of the US relay came about when the records of the then victorious Polish relay were withdrawn. This had won the final in Tokyo in a world record time of 43.6 seconds. After a sex test before the European Athletics Cup in 1967 , the final runner Ewa Kłobukowska was classified as intersex . In 1969 the World Athletics Federation Kłobukowskas canceled world records, including those from the final in Tokyo. The Polish relay team remained Olympic champion, but the world record was now awarded to the second-placed US relay team, which was also below the current world record.

Conducting the competition

The relays competed on October 19 for a total of two preliminary runs. The best four teams qualified for the final on October 20th.

Time schedule

October 19, 3:30 p.m .: Preliminaries
October 20, 4:30 p.m .: Final

Note: All times are Mexico City local time ( UTC −6)

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

Prelims

Date: October 19, 1968, from 3:30 p.m.

Forward 1

space	Season	occupation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	United States	Barbara Ferrell Margaret Bailes Mildrette Nice Wyomia Tyus	43.4 s	43.50 s	WR
2	Australia	Jennifer Lamy Joyce Bennett Raelene Boyle Dianne Burge	43.7 s	43.77 s
3	BR Germany	Renate Meyer Jutta Stöck Rita Jahn Ingrid Becker	44.1 s	44.18 s
4th	France	Michèle Alayrangues Gabrielle Meyer Nicole Montandon Sylviane Telliez	44.3 s	44.32 s
5	Canada	Debbie Miller Stephanie Berto Joan Hendry Irene Piotrowski	44.7 s	44.73 s
6th	Nigeria	Olajumoke Bodunrin Janet Omorogbe Mairo Jinadu Oyeronke Akindele	45.2 s	45.23 s
7th	Mexico	Alma Rosa Martínez Mercedes Román Enriqueta Basilio Esperanza Girón	47.0 s	47.09 s
DSQ	Jamaica	Adlin Mair-Clarke Carmen Smith Una Morris Vilma Charlton

Forward 2

space	Season	occupation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Netherlands	Wilma van den Berg Mieke Sterk Truus Hennipman Corrie Bakker	43.4 s	43.49 s	WRe
2	Soviet Union	Lyudmila Sharkova Galina Bucharina Vera Popkova Lyudmila Samotjossowa	43.6 s	43.67 s
3	Great Britain	Anita Neil Maureen Tranter Janet Simpson Lillian Board	43.9 s	43.98 s
4th	Cuba	Marlene Elejarde Fulgencia Romay Violeta Quesada Miguelina Cobián	44.1 s	44.15 s
5	Hungary	Etelka Kispál Margit Nemesházi Györgyi Balogh Annamária Tóth	44.6 s	44.65 s
6th	Taiwan	Chi Cheng Yeh Chu-mei Lin Chun-yu Tien Ah-mei	47.2 s	47.24 s
7th	Poland	Danuta Straszyńska Mirosława Sarna Urszula Jóźwik Irena Szewińska	53.0 s	53.02 s

final

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	United States	Barbara Ferrell Margaret Bailes Mildrette Nice Wyomia Tyus	42.8 s	42.88 s	WR
2	Cuba	Marlene Elejarde Fulgencia Romay Violeta Quesada Miguelina Cobián	43.3 s	43.36 s
3	Soviet Union	Lyudmila Sharkova Galina Bucharina Vera Popkova Lyudmila Samotjossowa	43.4 s	43.41 s
4th	Netherlands	Wilma van den Berg Mieke Sterk Truus Hennipman Corrie Bakker	43.4 s	43.44 s
5	Australia	Jennifer Lamy Joyce Bennett Raelene Boyle Dianne Burge	43.4 s	43.50 s
6th	BR Germany	Renate Meyer Jutta Stöck Rita Jahn Ingrid Becker	43.6 s	43.70 s
7th	Great Britain	Anita Neil Maureen Tranter Janet Simpson Lillian Board	43.7 s	43.78 s
8th	France	Michèle Alayrangues Gabrielle Meyer Nicole Montandon Sylviane Telliez	44.2 s	44.30 s

Date: October 20, 1968, 4:30 p.m.

As in all sprint competitions , the high altitude of the Mexican capital supported the athletes. The US sprinters managed to improve the world record both in the preliminary round and in the final. With the Olympic and silver medalists over 100 meters , Wyomia Tyus and Barbara Ferrell, they were the clearly favored team. Surprisingly, the Dutch season set the newly established world record for the US women in the second run.
In the final it then almost hailed new personal bests and national records. Final runner Wyomia Tyus secured the gold medal for her US team with a four-meter lead over Cuban Miguelina Cobián. The season undercut the world record by eight tenths of a second, making it the first women's season to stay below the 43-second mark. Cuba won the silver medal, bronze went to the USSR team. The Dutch women, who had set world records the day before, only got fourth place at the same time as the Soviet Union, both seasons with new European records. The fifth-placed Australians also remained below the world record from the preliminary races. The German relay, a further tenth of a second behind in sixth place, was just as fast as the Dutch and US-Americans the day before, setting a new German record.

Cuba and the Soviet Union won the first medals in this discipline.

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, p. 394f

Web links

• SportsReference 4 × 100 m , accessed on November 10, 2017
• Official report - summary p. 83f., English / French. (PDF), accessed on November 10, 2017
• Official report of the Olympic Games 1968 p. 535, English / French. (PDF), accessed on November 10, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, p. 395
2. ↑ Official report of the 1968 Olympic Games ( Memento of the original from September 17, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been 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. 11, English / French (PDF), accessed on November 10, 2017 
3. ↑ ^{a b} Official Report of the 1968 Olympic Games ( Memento of the original from September 17, 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. 535, engl./frz. (PDF), accessed on November 10, 2017 
4. ↑ SportsReference , accessed November 10, 2017