Athletics at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Women's 4 × 400 metres relay

Women's 4 × 400 metres relay at the Games of the XXXI Olympiad
The United States team leading the heat 1
Venue	Olympic Stadium
Date	19–20 August 2016
Teams	16
Winning time	3:19.06
Medalists
Allyson Felix Phyllis Francis Natasha Hastings Courtney Okolo Taylor Ellis-Watson* Francena McCorory*   United States   Stephenie Ann McPherson Anneisha McLaughlin-Whilby Shericka Jackson Novlene Williams-Mills Christine Day* Chrisann Gordon*   Jamaica   Eilidh Doyle Anyika Onuora Emily Diamond Christine Ohuruogu Kelly Massey*   Great Britain

Athletics at the 2016 Summer Olympics
List of athletes
Qualification
Track events
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
400 m		men		women
800 m		men		women
1500 m		men		women
5000 m		men		women
10,000 m		men		women
100 m hurdles				women
110 m hurdles		men
400 m hurdles		men		women
3000 m steeplechase		men		women
4 × 100 m relay		men		women
4 × 400 m relay		men		women
Road events
Marathon		men		women
20 km walk		men		women
50 km walk		men
Field events
Long jump		men		women
Triple jump		men		women
High jump		men		women
Pole vault		men		women
Shot put		men		women
Discus throw		men		women
Javelin throw		men		women
Hammer throw		men		women
Combined events
Heptathlon				women
Decathlon		men

The Women's 4 × 400 metres relay competition at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil was held at the Estádio Olímpico João Havelange on 19–20 August.^[1]

Summary

The United States entered as the defending Olympic champions while Jamaica were the reigning world champions from 2015, having defeated the Americans there. Great Britain entered with the fastest time recorded that year (3:25.05 minutes), which they had achieved to win the 2016 European title. France and Canada were the next strongest entries.^[2]

In the final, Stephenie Ann McPherson went out hard from the gun, chipping into the huge 3 turn stagger gap. By the end of the second turn she was almost side by side to American Courtney Okolo. Down the home stretch, Okolo accelerated and pulled away from McPherson. USA exchanged first, followed closely by Jamaica. Already with a gap back to Eilidh Doyle, Great Britain and Canada were the next to exchange. Natasha Hastings was first to the break and Anneisha McLaughlin-Whilby dropped in about 5 metres behind. Anyika Onuora was more than ten metres behind Jamaica by the time the British broke, Canada was next and a rush around the turn by Patrycja Wyciszkiewicz dropped Poland in behind Canada. Through the turn McLaughlin-Whilby progressively pulled down the gap on Hastings, while the rest of the field fell another ten metres behind the leaders. Onuora slowed further on the home stretch, Canada's Alicia Brown passing her on the outside with Wyciszkiewicz pulling up to her shoulder.

USA exchanged first, though with only a 2 metre gap to Jamaica. Seconds later Canada was the next to exchange over Poland with Iga Baumgart running into the back of Brown, losing a step to dance away. Up front, USA's Phyllis Francis again opened up a gap on Jamaica's Shericka Jackson around the turn. She held the gap to the half way mark, then Jackson began to close it down. Behind them, Caitlin Sargent-Jones brought Australia around Great Britain and past Poland. After getting passed, Britain's Emily Diamond sparked up and passed both Poland and Australia, setting her marks on Canada's Noelle Montcalm, 5 metres ahead. Coming into the handoff, the bronze medalist Jackson closed down to within a metre of Francis. 40 metres back, Diamond had gotten past Canada. Sargent-Jones' exuberance brought Australia into the handoff last.

At the 2015 World Championships, Novlene Williams-Mills ran past Francena McCorory to give Jamaica the victory over the USA, wasting Allyson Felix's incredible 47.7 leg leading up to the handoff, the second fastest in history. In this race, the veteran Williams-Mills, at 34 the oldest woman in this race, was matched directly against Felix. And well behind them, Britain's hopes were in the hands of their veteran Christine Ohuruogu. All the way down the backstretch, Williams-Mills kept closing the gap, inching closer to Felix. By the middle of the final turn, it looked like Williams-Mills was about to move into the perfect position to pass Felix coming off the turn. Instead, Felix started to accelerate, the gap began to open wider. From less than a meter, Felix continued to run away, opening up to 8 meters by the finish for a clear American victory. Well behind them, in the battle for bronze, Olha Zemlyak came from seventh place to run Ukraine past Poland, Italy and Canada to get right behind Ohuruogu, but Ohuruogu stood firm through the final turn. As Zemlyak moved to Ohuruogu's shoulder to attack coming off the turn, instead Canada's Sage Watson went around Zemlyak and Ohuruogu ran away, opening up a four-metre gap to take bronze for Britain.^[3]

The gold medal was Felix's sixth Olympic gold medal and also the ninth overall Olympic medal of her career, tying her with Merlene Ottey as the most decorated woman in track and field history. Ottey, however, never won Olympic gold. Furthermore, the gold medal was the sixth straight Olympic victory for the United States in this event.

Records

Prior to the competition, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	Soviet Union (Tatyana Ledovskaya, Olga Nazarova, Mariya Pinigina, Olga Bryzgina)	3:15.17	Seoul, South Korea	1 October 1988
Olympic record
2016 World leading	Great Britain (Emily Diamond, Anyika Onuora, Eilidh Doyle, Seren Bundy-Davies)	3:25.05	Amsterdam, Netherlands	10 July 2016

The following national records were established during the competition:

Country	Athletes	Round	Time	Notes
Netherlands	Madiea Ghafoor, Lisanne de Witte, Nicky van Leuveren, Laura de Witte (NED)	Heats	3:26.98
Italy	Maria Benedicta Chigbolu, Maria Enrica Spacca, Ayomide Folorunso, Libania Grenot (ITA)	Heats	3:25.16
Bahamas	Lanece Clarke, Anthonique Strachan, Carmiesha Cox, Christine Amertil (BAH)	Heats	3:26.36

Schedule

All times are Brazil time (UTC−3)^[4]

Results

Heats

Qualification: First 3 in each heat (Q) and the next 2 fastest (q) advance to the Final

Heat 1

Rank	Lane	Nation	Competitors	Time	Notes
1	4	United States	Courtney Okolo, Taylor Ellis-Watson, Francena McCorory, Phyllis Francis	3:21.42	Q, SB
2	8	Ukraine	Alina Logvynenko, Olha Bibik, Tetiana Melnyk, Olha Zemlyak	3:24.54	Q, SB
3	2	Poland	Małgorzata Hołub, Patrycja Wyciszkiewicz, Iga Baumgart, Justyna Święty	3:25.34	Q, SB
4	1	Australia	Jessica Thornton, Anneliese Rubie, Caitlin Sargent-Jones, Morgan Mitchell	3:25.71	q, SB
5	3	France	Phara Anacharsis, Brigitte Ntiamoah, Marie Gayot, Floria Gueï	3:26.18
6	6	Netherlands	Madiea Ghafoor, Lisanne de Witte, Nicky van Leuveren, Laura de Witte	3:26.98	NR
7	5	Romania	Adelina Pastor, Anamaria Ioniță, Andrea Miklós, Bianca Răzor	3:29.87
8	7	Brazil	Joelma Sousa, Geisa Coutinho, Leticia de Souza, Jailma de Lima	3:30.27	SB

Heat 2

Rank	Lane	Nation	Competitors	Time	Notes
1	4	Jamaica	Christine Day, Anneisha McLaughlin-Whilby, Chrisann Gordon, Novlene Williams-Mills	3:22.38	Q, SB
2	2	Great Britain	Emily Diamond, Anyika Onuora, Kelly Massey, Christine Ohuruogu	3:24.81	Q, SB
3	8	Canada	Carline Muir, Alicia Brown, Noelle Montcalm, Sage Watson	3:24.94	Q, SB
4	3	Italy	Maria Benedicta Chigbolu, Maria Enrica Spacca, Ayomide Folorunso, Libania Grenot	3:25.16	q, NR
5	5	Germany	Laura Muller, Friederike Möhlenkamp, Lara Hoffmann, Ruth Spelmeyer	3:26.02	SB
6	6	Bahamas	Lanece Clarke, Anthonique Strachan, Carmiesha Cox, Christine Amertil	3:26.36	NR
7	1	India	Nirmala Sheoran, Tintu Lukka, Poovamma Raju Machettira, Anilda Thomas	3:29.53
8	7	Cuba	Lisneidy Veitia, Gilda Casanova, Roxana Gomez, Daisurami Bonne	3:30.11	SB

Final

Rank	Lane	Nation	Competitors	Time	Notes
01 !	6	United States	Courtney Okolo, Natasha Hastings, Phyllis Francis, Allyson Felix	3:19.06	SB
02 !	5	Jamaica	Stephenie Ann McPherson, Anneisha McLaughlin-Whilby, Shericka Jackson, Novlene Williams-Mills	3:20.34	SB
03 !	3	Great Britain	Eilidh Doyle, Anyika Onuora, Emily Diamond, Christine Ohuruogu	3:25.88
4	7	Canada	Carline Muir, Alicia Brown, Noelle Montcalm, Sage Watson	3:26.43
5	4	Ukraine	Alina Lohvynenko, Olha Bibik, Tetyana Melnyk, Olha Zemlyak	3:26.64
6	1	Italy	Maria Benedicta Chigbolu, Maria Enrica Spacca, Ayomide Folorunso, Libania Grenot	3:27.05
7	8	Poland	Małgorzata Hołub, Patrycja Wyciszkiewicz, Iga Baumgart, Justyna Święty	3:27.28
8	2	Australia	Jessica Thornton, Anneliese Rubie, Caitlin Sargent, Morgan Mitchell	3:27.45

References