4 × 200 metres relay


The 4 × 200 metres relay is an athletics track event in which teams comprise four runners who each complete 200 metres or half a lap on a standard 400 metre track. The event is a world record eligible event, but is not a standard event at most professional or collegiate track meets, mainly being found at the high school level, though certain leagues regularly conduct this event as part of their program.

Description

There are multiple formats under which the race can be conducted.
  • If the track is marked for a four-turn stagger format, the runners can stay in their lanes throughout the race. In this case the outer lanes could appear to start 2/3 of the way through the first turn. The markings for such a special zone should be colored red, though many tracks deviate from the standard marking colors.
  • On a conventionally marked track, the race can be run starting at the normal 400 metre start line. As a two-turn stagger, the first exchange would take place in the standard second passing zone of the 4 × 100 m relay, the second pass taking place in the normal 4 × 400 m relay zone. After that exchange, the runner would break into lane one and make a third exchange in lane one of the second standard 4 × 100 m relay zone.
  • Indoors, the event is popular because each leg is one lap of a standard 200 m indoor track.
The imperial distance analogue to the event is the 4 × 220 yards relay, contested at a total of which is slightly longer than the 800 m metric distance. It was contested at the AIAW Indoor Track and Field Championships and other American and British meets until the switch to metric in the 1980s.

World record

The men's world record was set in 2014 at the inaugural IAAF World Relay Championships in Nassau, Bahamas. The record was set by a Jamaican team consisting of Nickel Ashmeade, Warren Weir, Jermaine Brown and Yohan Blake in a time of 1:18.63. The women's world record is 1:27.46, set by a squad called Team USA "Blue" LaTasha Jenkins, LaTasha Colander-Richardson, Nanceen Perry, and Marion Jones on April 29, 2000, at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

European record

Men

RankTimeTeamNationDatePlaceRef
11:18.63Nickel Ashmeade, Warren Weir, Jermaine Brown, Yohan BlakeJamaica

Women

  • Updated April 2024.
RankTimeTeamNationDatePlaceRef
11:27.05Team International
Dina Asher-Smith
Rhasidat Adeleke
Lanae-Tava Thomas
Julien Alfred
Great Britain