1988 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 4 × 400 m (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	4 x 400 meter relay
gender	Men
Attendees	99 athletes from 22 countries
Competition location	Seoul Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	September 30, 1988 (preliminary round and semi-finals) October 1, 1988 (final)
Medalist  United States  JAM  FRG

The men's 4 x 400 meter relay at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul was held on September 30 and October 1, 1988 at the Seoul Olympic Stadium. 99 athletes took part in 22 relays.

The US season was Olympic champion with Danny Everett , Steve Lewis , Kevin Robinzine and Harry Reynolds - Andrew Valmon and Antonio McKay were also in the heats . In the final, the team set the world record . The silver medal went to Jamaica ( Howard Davis , Devon Morris , Winthrop Graham , Bert Cameron - in the heats also: Howard Burnett and Trevor Graham ). The Federal Republic of Germany won bronze with Norbert Dobeleit , Edgar Itt , Jörg Vaihinger and Ralf Lübke - in the preliminary stages: Mark Henrich and Bodo Kuhn .

The runners used for the medal winners in the heats and semi-finals also received corresponding precious metal. The world record, however, was only awarded to the runners used in the final.

The East German season reached the final and finished fourth.
Relays from Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein did not take part.

Current title holders

Olympic champion 1984	United States	2: 57.91 min	Los Angeles 1984
World Champion 1987		2: 57.29 min	Rome 1987
European champion 1986	Great Britain	2: 59.84 min	Stuttgart 1986
Pan American Champion 1987	United States	2: 59.54 min	Indianapolis 1987
Central America and Caribbean Champion 1987	Jamaica	3: 03.54 min	Caracas 1987
South America Champion 1987	Chile	3: 07.64 min	São Paulo 1987
Asian champion 1987	Japan	3: 09.31 min	Singapore 1987
African Champion 1988	Ethiopia	3: 07.11 min	Annaba 1988

Existing records

World record	2: 56.16 min	USA ( Vince Matthews , Ron Freeman , Larry James , Lee Evans )	Mexico City , Mexico	20th October 1968
Olympic record			Mexico City Final , Mexico

Preliminary round

Date: September 30, 1988

The 22 seasons were drawn in three preliminary runs. The first four seasons of each run qualified for the semifinals. In addition, the two fastest times, the so-called lucky losers , made it through. The directly qualified relays are highlighted in light blue, the lucky losers in light green.

Forward 1

space	Season	occupation	time	annotation
1	BR Germany	Bodo Kuhn Mark Henrich Jörg Vaihinger Ralf Lübke	3: 03.90 min
2	Great Britain	Brian Whittle Paul Harmsworth Todd Bennett Philip Brown	3: 04.18 min
3	Japan	Hirofumi Koike Kenji Yamauchi Hiromi Kawasumi Susumu Takano	3: 05.93 min
4th	Australia	Robert Ballard Mark Garner Leigh Miller MIles Murphy	3: 05.93 min
5	Barbados	Seibert Straughn Richard Louis Allan Ince Elvis Forde	3: 06.03 min
6th	Sierra Leone	Horace Dove-Edwin Felix Sandy Benjamin Grant David Sawyerr	3: 10.47 min
7th	Oman	Sulaiman Juma Al-Habsi Mohamed Amer Al-Malky Abdullah Salem Al-Khalidi Mansoor Al-Bulushi	3: 12.89 min
8th	South Korea	Hwang Hong-chul Yoon Nam-han Ryu Tae-keong Cho Jin-saeng	3: 14.71 min

Forward 2

space	Season	occupation	time	annotation
1	Jamaica	Howard Burnett Devon Morris Trevor Graham Howard Davis	3: 04.00 min
2	Yugoslavia	Branislav Karaulić Slobodan Popović Slobodan Branković Ismail Mačev	3: 05.62 min
3	Portugal	Paulo Curvelo Filipe Lombá António Abrantes Álvaro Silva	3: 07.75 min
4th	GDR	Jens Carlowitz Michael Schimmer Mathias Schersing Thomas Schönlebe	3: 08.13 min
5	Canada	John Graham Carl Folkes Paul Osland Anton Skerritt	3: 09.52 min
6th	Antigua and Barbuda	Howard Lindsay Alfred Browne Oral Selkridge Larry Miller	3: 11.04 min
7th	Zambia	Douglas Kalembo Enock Musonda Jonathan Chipalo Samuel Matete	3: 11.35 min
DNS	Uganda

Forward 3

space	Season	occupation	time	annotation
1	United States	Andrew Valmon Kevin Robinzine Antonio McKay Steve Lewis	3: 02.16 min
2	Kenya	Tito Sawe Lucas Sang Paul Ereng Simon Kipkemboi	3: 05.21 min
3	Nigeria	Sunday Uti Moses Ugbisie Henry Amike Innocent Egbunike	3: 06.59 min
4th	Senegal	Ousmane Diarra Babacar Niang Moussa Case Amadou Dia Ba	3: 06.93 min
5	Ivory Coast	Akissi Kpidi Zongo Kuya Lancine Fofana Gabriel Tiacoh	3: 07.40 min
6th	Pakistan	Bashir Ahmed Mohammad Sadaqat Muhammad Afzal Mohammad Fayyaz	3: 08.54 min
7th	Botswana	Joseph Ramotshabi Kebapetse Gaseitsiwe Tobolane Kgarametso Sunday Maweni	3: 13.16 min

Semifinals

Date: September 30, 1988

The first four seasons (highlighted in light blue) in each of the two races qualified for the final.

Run 1

In the UK season, Kriss Akabusi ran for Paul Harmsworth.
In the Australian season, Darren Clark was used for Leigh Miller.
The Ivory Coast season saw two cast changes: René Djédjémel for Zongo Kuya and Kouadio Djetnan for Lancine Fofana.

space	Season	occupation	time	annotation
1	United States	Andrew Valmon Kevin Robinzine Antonio McKay Steve Lewis	3: 02.84 min
2	Kenya	Tito Sawe Lucas Sang Paul Ereng Simon Kipkemboi	3: 03.24 min
3	Great Britain	Brian Whittle Kriss Akabusi Todd Bennett Philip Brown	3: 04.60 min
4th	Australia	Miles Murphy Mark Garner Robert Ballard Darren Clark	3: 06.63 min
5	Barbados	Seibert Straughn Richard Louis Allan Ince Elvis Forde	3: 06.93 min
6th	Ivory Coast	Akissi Kpidi René Djédjémel Kouadio Djetnan Gabriel Tiacoh	3: 07.15 min
7th	Portugal	Paulo Curvelo Filipe Lombá António Abrantes Alvaro Silva	3: 07.75 min
8th	Canada	John Graham Carl Folkes Paul Osland Anton Skerritt	3: 09.48 min

Run 2

In the GDR season, Frank Möller ran for Michael Schimmer.
In the German relay, Norbert Dobeleit replaced Bodo Kuhn.
For Jamaica, Bert Cameron ran instead of Howard Burnet.

space	Season	occupation	time	annotation
1	GDR	Jens Carlowitz Frank Möller Mathias Schersing Thomas Schönlebe	3: 00.60 min
2	BR Germany	Norbert Dobeleit Mark Henrich Jörg Vaihinger Ralf Lübke	3: 00.66 min
3	Jamaica	Trevor Graham Devon Morris Bert Cameron Howard Davis	3: 00.94 min
4th	Nigeria	Sunday Uti Moses Ugbisie Henry Amike Innocent Egbunike	3: 01.13 min
5	Yugoslavia	Branislav Karaulić Slobodan Popović Slobodan Branković Ismail Mačev	3: 01.59 min
6th	Japan	Hirofumi Koike Kenji Yamauchi Hiromi Kawasumi Susumu Takano	3: 03.80 min
7th	Senegal	Ousmane Diarra Babacar Niang Moussa Case Amadou Dia Ba	3: 07.19 min
8th	Pakistan	Bashir Ahmed Mohammad Sadaqat Muhammad Afzal Mohammad Fayyaz	3: 09.50 min

final

space	Season	occupation	time	annotation
1	United States	Danny Everett Steve Lewis Kevin Robinzine Harry Reynolds in the heats also: Andrew Valmon Antonio McKay	2: 56.16 min	WRe
2	Jamaica	Howard Davis Devon Morris Winthrop Graham Bert Cameron in the heats also: Howard Burnett Trevor Graham	3: 00.30 min
3	BR Germany	Norbert Dobeleit Edgar Itt Jörg Vaihinger Ralf Lübke in the preliminary also: Mark Henrich Bodo Kuhn	3: 00.56 min
4th	GDR	Jens Carlowitz Mathias Schersing Frank Möller Thomas Schönlebe in the preliminary stages also: Michael Schimmer	3: 01.13 min
5	Great Britain	Brian Whittle Kriss Akabusi Todd Bennett Philip Brown in the heats also: Paul Harmsworth	3: 02.00 min
6th	Australia	Robert Ballard Mark Garner Miles Murphy Darren Clark in the heats also: Leigh Miller	3: 02.49 min
7th	Nigeria	Sunday Uti Moses Ugbisie Henry Amike Innocent Egbunike	3: 02.50 min
8th	Kenya	Tito Sawe Lucas Sang Paul Ereng Simon Kipkemboi	3: 04.69 min

Date: October 1, 1988

The top favorite was the US season, which included three medalists from the individual race: Steve Lewis, Harry Reynolds and Danny Everett. For the medals behind, the race looked completely open.

The following changes were made to the cast:

• US Season: Danny Everett for Andrew Valmon / Harry Reynolds for Antonio McKay
• Jamaica: Winthrop Graham instead of Trevor Graham
• Federal Republic of Germany: Edgar Itt for Mark Henrich

Danny Everett and Steve Lewis undercut the 44-second mark on their sections, the first two laps of this race, and thus had a big lead. Behind them lay Jamaica and the GDR. At the end of the third round, Kevin Robinzine was able to increase the USA's lead. Behind him there was a pentathlon for medals between the Federal Republic of Germany, the GDR, Jamaica, Nigeria and Great Britain. The Jamaican and the German team made the best changes. While Harry Reynolds brought the US season the undisputed Olympic victory, Ralf Lübke attacked Bert Cameron, who was running in front of him. Cameron countered and secured the silver medal for Jamaica. Bronze went to the Federal Republic of Germany. Behind them was the GDR in fourth place, ahead of Great Britain.

The victory time was initially determined to be 2: 56.17 min, but was later corrected to 2: 56.16 min after a race analysis. This set the US season the world record .

In the seventeenth Olympic final there was the USA's twelfth victory.

Web links

• SportsReference 4 × 400 m , accessed on January 26, 2018
• Official report on the Olympic Games in Seoul Volume two, part two , athletics results: pp. 238–240, English / French (PDF, 25.64 MB), accessed on January 26, 2018

Video

• 1988 Olympics - Men's 4x400 Meter Relay , published June 19, 2012 on youtube.com, accessed January 26, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Beijing 2015, page 684 , accessed on January 26, 2018
2. ↑ Official report on the Olympic Games in Seoul Volume two, part two , Athletics results: p. 238f, English / French (PDF, 25.64 MB), accessed on January 26, 2018
3. ↑ Official report on the Olympic Games in Seoul Volume two, part two , Athletics results: p. 239f, English / French (PDF, 25.64 MB), accessed on January 26, 2018
4. ↑ Official report on the Olympic Games in Seoul Volume two, part two , athletics results: p. 240, English / French (PDF, 25.64 MB), accessed on January 26, 2018