Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics - Men's 4x100 metre relay

The men's 4×100 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 and 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.

The United States were favorites going into the final, but poor baton changes led to Great Britain's team narrowly defeating them in a photo-finish. The Great Britain final time of 38.07 seconds was actually slower than the 38.02 seconds posted by the United States in their qualifying heat. The final runners — Mark Lewis-Francis and Maurice Greene — received their batons at roughly the same time but with Greene some two metres behind; in a spectacular race down the straight, Lewis-Francis held off his opponent to secure the win for his team.

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 seconds) prior to the 2004 Summer Olympics.

Results

Heats

All times shown are in seconds.
*Q denotes automatic qualification.
*q denotes fastest losers.
*DNS denotes did not start.
*DNF denotes did not finish.
*AR denotes area record.
*NR denotes national record.
*PB denotes personal best.
*SB denotes season's best.

Heat 1

#) 38.27s Q SB
#) 38.47s Q SB
#) 38.49s Q SB
#) 38.53s q =NR
#) 38.53s q
#) 38.64s
#) 38.64s SB
#) 39.19s

Heat 2

#) 38.02s Q
#) 38.53s Q SB
#) 38.64s Q
#) 38.71s SB
#) 38.79s
#) 38.88s SB
#) 38.93s
#) DNF

Final

# Great Britain (Jason Gardener, Darren Campbell, Marlon Devonish, Mark Lewis-Francis) 38.07s SB
#, Coby Miller, Maurice Greene) 38.08s
# Nigeria (Olusoji Fasuba, Uchenna Emedolu, Aaron Egbele, Deji Aliu) 38.23s SB
# Japan (Hiroyasu Tsuchie, Shingo Suetsugu, Shinji Takahira, Nobuharu Asahara) 38.49s
# Poland (Zbigniew Tulin, Lukasz Chyla, Marcin Jedrusinski, Marcin Urbas) 38.54s
# Australia (Adam Basil, Paul di Bella, Patrick Johnson, Joshua Ross) 38.56s
# Trinidad and Tobago (Nicconnor Alexander, Marc Burns, Ato Boldon, Darrel Brown) 38.60s
# Brazil (Claudio Roberto Souza, Edson Luciano Ribeiro, Andre Domingos, Vicente de Lima) 38.67s

References

*