1996 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 4 × 400 m (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	4 x 400 meter relay
gender	Men
Attendees	151 athletes from 35 countries
Competition location	Centennial Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	August 2, 1996 (preliminary round / semi-finals) August 3, 1996 (final)
Medalist  United States  GBR  JAM

The men's 4-by-400-meter relay at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta was played on August 2 and 3, 1996 at the Centennial Olympic Stadium . 151 athletes took part in 35 relays.

Olympic champion was the US relay with LaMont Smith , Alvin Harrison , Derek Mills and Anthuan Maybank . Jason Rouser was also used in the preliminary stages. The silver medal went to Great Britain with Iwan Thomas , Jamie Baulch , Mark Richardson and Roger Black , as well as in the preliminary stages : Mark Hylton and Du'aine Ladejo . Jamaica won bronze with Michael McDonald , Roxbert Martin , Gregory Haughton and Davian Clarke . Garth Robinson and Dennis Blake for Jamaica were also involved in the preliminary stages .

The runners used in the heats for the medal winners also received corresponding precious metal.

The German relay was eliminated in the preliminary round, the Swiss relay in the semi-finals.
Relays from Austria and Liechtenstein did not take part.

Current title holders

Olympic champion 1992	United States	2: 55.74 min	Barcelona 1992
World Champion 1995		2: 57.32 min	Gothenburg 1995
European Champion 1994	Great Britain	2: 59.13 min	Helsinki 1994
Pan American champion 1995	Cuba	3: 01.53 min	Mar del Plata 1995
Central America and Caribbean champions 1995	Jamaica	3: 04.53 min	Guatemala City 1995
South American Champion 1995	Brazil	3: 04.93 min	Manaus 1995
Asian champion 1995	Qatar	3: 05.78 min	Jakarta 1995
African champion 1996	Senegal	3: 03.44 min	Yaoundé 1996
Oceania Champion 1994	Fiji	3: 12.40 min	Auckland 1994

Existing records

World record	2: 54.29 min	USA ( Andrew Valmon , Quincy Watts , Harry Reynolds , Michael Johnson )	Stuttgart , Germany	22nd August 1993
Olympic record	2: 55.74 min	USA ( Andrew Valmon , Quincy Watts , Michael Johnson , Steve Lewis )	Final of Barcelona , Spain	August 8, 1992

Note: All times are Atlanta local time ( UTC − 5 ).

Preliminary round

August 2, 1996, from 9:15 a.m.

The relays were drawn in five runs. The first two teams qualified for the semi-finals per run. In addition, the six fastest drivers, the so-called lucky losers , made it through. The directly qualified teams are highlighted in light blue, the lucky losers in light green.

Forward 1

space	Season	occupation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Great Britain	Du'aine Ladejo Jamie Baulch Mark Hylton Mark Richardson	3: 01.79
2	Poland	Piotr Rysiukiewicz Paweł Januszewski Robert Maćkowiak Piotr Haczek	3: 01.92
3	Brazil	Everson Teixeira Valdinei da Silva Osmar dos Santos Sanderlei Parrela	3: 02.51
4th	Australia	Mark Ladbrock Michael Joubert Paul Greene Cameron Mackenzie	3: 03.73
5	St. Lucia	Dominic Johnson Ivan Jean-Marie Maxime Charlemagne Maxwell Seales	3: 10.51
6th	Fiji	Soloveni Nakaunicina Henry Semiti Solomone Bole Isireli Naikelekelevesi	3: 10.67
7th	Sierra Leone	Foday Sillah Haroun Korjie Frank Turay Prince Amara	3: 11.65

Forward 2

space	Season	occupation	Time (min)	annotation
1	United States	LaMont Smith Jason Rouser Derek Mills Anthuan Maybank	3: 00.56
2	Russia	Innokenty Sharov Mikhail Vdovin Ruslan Mashchenko Dmitri Kosov	3: 04.73
3	Ghana	Solomon Amegatcher Abu Duah Julius Sedame Ahmed Ali	3: 05.53
4th	Cuba	Omar Mena Jorge Crusellas Georkis Vera Roberto Hernández	3: 05.75
5	Qatar	Mubarak Sultan Al-Nubi Faraj Ali Ismail Doka Sami Al-Abdullah Hamad Al-Dosari	3: 08.25
6th	Antigua and Barbuda	N'Kosie Barnes Michael Terry Mitchell Browne Howard Lindsay	3: 09.46
7th	Lesotho	Isaac Seatile Motlatsi Maseela Makokoe Mahanetsa Mpho Morobe	3: 15.67

Forward 3

space	Season	occupation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Kenya	Samson Yego Simon Kemboi Kennedy Ochieng Julius Chepkwony	3: 02.52
2	Senegal	Moustapha Diarra Aboubakry Dia Hachim Ndiaye Ibou Faye	3: 02.61
3	Nigeria	Udeme Ekpeyong Clement Chukwu Ayuba Machem Sunday Bada	3: 02.73
4th	Switzerland	Laurent Clerc Kevin Widmer Alain Rohr Mathias Rusterholz	3: 03.05
5	St. Vincent and the Grenadines	Eswort Coombs Thomas Dickson Eversley Linley Erasto Sampson	3: 08.52
6th	British Virgin Islands	Mario Todman Steve Augustine Greg Rhymer Ralston Varlack	3: 17.30
7th	Papua New Guinea	Samuel Bai Ivan Wakit Amos Ali Subul Babo	3: 19.92

Forward 4

space	Season	occupation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Jamaica	Gregory Haughton Dennis Blake Roxbert Martin Garth Robinson	3: 02.81
2	Italy	Marco Vaccari Alessandro Aimar Andrea Nuti Ashraf Saber	3: 03.60
3	South Africa	Alfred Visagie Arnaud Malherbe Hendrick Mokganyetsi Bobang Phiri	3: 03.79
4th	Mauritius	Gilbert Hashan Désiré Pierre-Louis Rudy Tirvengadum Jean Éric Milazar	3: 08.17
5	Zimbabwe	Julius Masvanise Tawanda Chiwira Savieri Ngidhi Ken Harnden	3: 13.35
6th	Maldives	Ahmed Shageef Mohamed Amir Naseer Ismail Hussain Riyaz	3: 24.88
DSQ	Grenada	Richard Britton Rufus Jones Alleyne Francique Clint Williams

Forward 5

space	Season	occupation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Japan	Shunji Karube Koji Ito Jun Osakada Kenji Tabata	3: 02.82
2	Bahamas	Troy McIntosh Timothy Munnings Theron Cooper Dennis Darling	3: 04.09
3	Saudi Arabia	Mohamed Hamed Al-Bishi Hashim Al-Sharfa Saleh Al-Saydan Hadi Soua'an Al-Somaily	3: 04.67
4th	Germany	Rico Lieder Andreas Hein Kai Karsten Thomas Schönlebe	3: 05.16
5	Botswana	Agrippa Matshameko Keteng Baloseng Rampa Mosweu Johnson Kubisa	3: 06.62
DNF	Gambia	Dawda Jallow Momodou Drammeh Lamin Drammeh Assan John
DSQ	Guyana	Andrew Harry Roger Gill Lancelot Gittens Richard Jones

Semifinals

2nd August 1996

From the two semi-finals, the first four seasons each qualified for the final (highlighted in light blue).

Run 1

space	Season	occupation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Great Britain	Iwan Thomas Jamie Baulch Du'aine Ladejo Mark Richardson	3: 01.36
2	Senegal	Moustapha Diarra Aboubakry Dia Hachim Ndiaye Ibou Faye	3: 01.72
3	Kenya	Samson Kitur Samson Yego Simon Kemboi Julius Chepkwony	3: 01.73
4th	Poland	Piotr Rysiukiewicz Tomasz Jędrusik Robert Maćkowiak Piotr Haczek	3: 02.29
5	South Africa	Alfred Visagie Arnaud Malherbe Hendrick Mokganyetsi Bobang Phiri	3: 02.96
6th	Brazil	Sanderlei Parrela Valdinei da Silva Everson Teixeira Eronilde de Araújo	3: 03.46
7th	Australia	Mark Ladbrock Michael Joubert Paul Greene Cameron Mackenzie	3: 04.55
8th	Russia	Innokenty Sharov Mikhail Vdovin Ruslan Mashchenko Dmitri Kosov	3: 05.63

The following cast changes have been made.

• UK - Iwan Thomas ran for Mark Hylton.
• Kenya - Samson Kitur replaced Kennedy Ochieng.
• Poland - Tomasz Jędrusik ran instead of Paweł Januszewski.
• Brazil - Eronilde de Araújo joined the team for Osmar dos Santos.

Run 2

space	Season	occupation	Time (min)	annotation
1	United States	LaMont Smith Jason Rouser Derek Mills Anthuan Maybank	2: 57.87
2	Jamaica	Michael McDonald Dennis Blake Gregory Haughton Roxbert Martin	2: 58.42
3	Japan	Shunji Karube Jun Osakada Shigekazu Ōmori Koji Ito	3: 01.92
4th	Bahamas	Troy McIntosh Timothy Munnings Theron Cooper Dennis Darling	3: 02.17
5	Italy	Fabrizio Mori Alessandro Aimar Andrea Nuti Ashraf Saber	3: 02.56
6th	Switzerland	Laurent Clerc Kevin Widmer Alain Rohr Mathias Rusterholz	3: 05.36
7th	Saudi Arabia	Saleh Al-Saydan Mohamed Hamed Al-Bishi Hashim Al-Sharfa Hadi Soua'an Al-Somaily	3: 07.18
DSQ	Nigeria	Udeme Ekpeyong Clement Chukwu Ayuba Machem Sunday Bada

The following cast changes have been made.

• Jamaica - Michael McDonald ran for Garth Robinson.
• Japan - Shigekazu Ōmori replaced Kenji Tabata.
• Italy - Fabrizio Mori joined the team for Marco Vaccari.

final

space	Season	occupation	Time (min)	annotation
1	United States	LaMont Smith Alvin Harrison Derek Mills Anthuan Maybank in the preliminary also: Jason Rouser	2: 55.99
2	Great Britain	Iwan Thomas Jamie Baulch Mark Richardson Roger Black in the heats also: Mark Hylton Du'aine Ladejo	2: 56.60
3	Jamaica	Michael McDonald Roxbert Martin Gregory Haughton Davian Clarke in the heats also: Garth Robinson Dennis Blake	2: 59.42
4th	Senegal	Moustapha Diarra Aboubakry Dia Hachim Ndiaye Ibou Faye	3: 00.64
5	Japan	Shunji Karube Koji Ito Jun Osakada Shigekazu Ōmori in the preliminary also: Kenji Tabata	3: 00.76
6th	Poland	Piotr Rysiukiewicz Tomasz Jędrusik Piotr Haczek Robert Maćkowiak in the preliminary also: Paweł Januszewski	3: 00.96
7th	Bahamas	Carl Oliver Troy McIntosh Dennis Darling Timothy Munnings in the heats as well: Theron Cooper	3: 02.71
DNS	Kenya	Samson Kitur Samson Yego Simon Kemboi Julius Chepkwony in the preliminary also: Kennedy Ochieng

August 3, 1996

The US season was the favorite, even if Olympic champion Michael Johnson and world record holder Harry Reynolds could not be there. Both had previously injured in their individual races. Great Britain and Jamaica were the strongest opponents of the US season. The Kenya season, which is also highly rated, was unable to make it to the final due to injury problems.

There were a total of four cast changes.

• USA - Michael McDonald ran for Jason Rouser.
• Great Britain - Roger Black replaced Du'aine Ladejo.
• Jamaica - Davian Clarke joined the team for Dennis Blake.
• Bahamas - Carl Oliver ran in place of Theron Cooper.

In the final, the US starter LaMont Smith ran out an easy lead on Great Britain. The second British runner, Jamie Baulch, took the lead after turning onto the inside lane. Alvin Harrison, USA, and the Jamaican Roxbert Martin were right behind him. The other four seasons were well behind here. Until the second move, Harrison worked his way up again for the USA, followed closely by Jamaica and Great Britain. The Jamaican handover was extremely strange. Her third runner, Gregory Haughton, stumbled briefly, did a somersault to avoid falling completely, and then ran on. Of course, that took some time and there was a gap between the two leading teams. But the distance to the rear remained, even if it had become a little smaller. On the home stretch, Derek Mills became the third US runner to have a lead of around four meters over the British. Jamaica remained third by a larger margin. Japan moved in fourth place a few meters before the next teams. Roger Black fought his way back to US runner Anthuan Maybank on his final lap for the British. But it was no longer enough, on the home stretch Maybank pulled away a little further and the US team became Olympic champions ahead of Great Britain. Jamaica won the bronze medal. In the battle for fourth place, Ibou Faye, the Senegalese final runner, took the last few steps past the Japanese Shigekazu Ōmori. Poland finished sixth ahead of the Bahamas.

It was astonishing that the US season, which had been weakened as a replacement, ran an outstanding time of 2: 55.99 minutes, which was only 25 hundredths of a second above the Olympic and only 1.7 seconds above the world record . Overall, the level was very high. Three teams undercut the 3-minute mark and the next three seasons remained under 3:01 minutes.

In the 19th Olympic final there was the 14th victory of a US relay in the 4 x 400 meter relay . It was the fourth US win in a row in this discipline.

Web links

• SportsReference 4 × 400 m , accessed on March 2, 2018
• Official Report, Part III on the Olympic Games in Atlanta , p. 87, English / French (PDF, 13,520 MB), accessed on March 2, 2018

Video

• Anthuan Maybank 1996 Atlanta 4x400 Relay Olympic Final , published December 28, 2014 on youtube.com, accessed March 2, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Beijing 2015, page 684 , accessed on March 2, 2018
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Official Report, Part III on the Olympic Games in Atlanta ( Memento of the original from October 7, 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. 87, English / French (PDF, 13,520 MB), accessed on March 2, 2018