Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics - Men's 4x400 metre relay

The men's 4×400 metres relay was one of 23 track events of the athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics, in Athens. It was contested at the Athens Olympic Stadium, from August 27 to August 28, by a total of sixteen national teams comprising 64 athletes.

The sixteen teams competed in a two-heat qualifying round in which the first three teams from each heat, together with the next two fastest teams, were given a place in the final race.

Medalists

* Athletes who participated in the heats only and received medals.

Qualification

The Olympic qualification period for the athletics' relay events ran from January 1 2003 to July 21 2004. A National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter a maximum of one qualified relay team per relay event, with a maximum of six qualified athletes. For this event, an NOC would be invited to participate with a relay team if the average of the team's two best times — obtained in IAAF-sanctioned meetings or tournaments — would be among the best sixteen, at the end of this period.

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in minutes) prior to the 2004 Summer Olympics.

Results

All times are shown in minutes. The following abbreviations are used:

* Q denotes qualification by place
* q denotes qualification by time
* DNF denotes "did not finish"
* DSQ denotes "disqualification"
* SB denotes "season best"

Heats

Heat 1

#) 3:02.40 Q SB
#) 3:02.71 Q
#) 3:02.77 Q
#) 3:03.06 q
#) 3:03.32 q SB
#) 3:04.27 SB
#) 3:04.39
*) Disqualified or excluded

Heat 2

#) 2:59.30 Q
#) 3:01.60 Q SB
#) 3:01.74 Q SB
#) 3:03.35
#) 3:03.69
#) 3:04.01
#) 3:05.03 SB
*) DNF

Final

#, Darold Williamson) 2:55.91 SB
# Australia (John Steffensen, Mark Ormrod, Patrick Dwyer, Clinton Hill) 3:00.60 SB
# Nigeria (James Godday, Musa Audu, Saul Weigopwa, Enefiok Udo Obong) 3:00.90 SB
# Japan (Yuki Yamaguchi, Jun Osakada, Tomohiro Itoh, Mitsuhiro Sato) 3:00.99 SB
# Great Britain (Timothey Benjamin, Sean Baldock, Malachi Davis, Matthew Elias) 3:01.07 SB
#, Andrae Williams, Christopher Brown) 3:01.88
# Germany (Ingo Schultz, Kamghe Gaba, Ruwen Faller, Bastian Swillims) 3:02.22
#, Kagiso Kilego) 3:02.49 SB

References

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