# 2011 World Championships in Athletics – Men's 4 × 400 metres relay

The Men's 4 × 400 metres relay event at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Daegu Stadium on 1 and 2 September. Thursday and Friday. This is a change in schedule from previous years when all the relays were at the end of the program. This might necessitate a change in strategy to allow for team members involved in other events.
This was the fastest qualifying round in the history of the World Championships. All eight qualifying teams were faster than the fastest qualifier two years before. All but final qualifier Kenya were faster than the Bronze medal team at that championship. United States ran the world leading time, which sounds more impressive than it really was since the previous leading time was by an American collegiate team (though only seven of these national teams were better than that mark in this entire competition). The South African team set their National Record, led off by double amputee Oscar Pistorius. After the heat, South Africa elected not to include Pistorius in the final.
In the finals, none of the medal winning teams matched their times from the qualifying heats. Jonathan Borlée put Belgium in the early lead. After the first handoff, they were passed quickly by Ofentse Mogawane putting South Africa into the lead followed by Jermaine Gonzales of Jamaica. Five time defending champion United States, running hurdlers Bershawn Jackson and Angelo Taylor, was a slow third place behind South Africa's Willem de Beer watching Jamaican Riker Hylton separate from the field, but Hylton tied up on the home stretch and the race tightened going into the final handoff. Taking the baton in the unfamiliar third place, Silver medalist LaShawn Merritt ran a controlled race in lane one moving into position for one final surge on the home stretch. Merritt was actually too close to the runners ahead of him and had to dart to the right to go around to pass the two teams in green and yellow to the finish. South Africa anchor, hurdler L. J. van Zyl, held off Jamaica's Leford Green for the silver medal.

## Medalists

| Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| United States (USA) Greg Nixon Bershawn Jackson Angelo Taylor LaShawn Merritt Jamaal Torrance* Michael Berry* | South Africa (RSA) Shane Victor Ofentse Mogawane Willem de Beer L. J. van Zyl Oscar Pistorius* | Jamaica (JAM) Allodin Fothergill Jermaine Gonzales Riker Hylton Leford Green Lansford Spence* |

## Records

| World record | United States (Andrew Valmon, Quincy Watts, Harry Reynolds, Michael Johnson) | 2:54.29 | Stuttgart, Germany | 22 August 1993 |
| Championship record | United States (Andrew Valmon, Quincy Watts, Harry Reynolds, Michael Johnson) | 2:54.29 | Stuttgart, Germany | 22 August 1993 |
| World leading | Texas A&M University (Bryan Miller, Tabarie Henry, Michael Preble, Demetrius Pinder) | 3:00.45 | Austin, United States | 9 April 2011 |
| African record | Nigeria (Clement Chukwu, Jude Monye, Sunday Bada, Enefiok Udo-Obong) | 2:58.68 | Sydney, Australia | 30 September 2000 |
| Asian record | Japan (Shunji Karube, Koji Ito, Jun Osakada, Shigekazu Omori) | 3:00.76 | Atlanta, United States | 3 August 1996 |
| North, Central American and Caribbean record | United States (Andrew Valmon, Quincy Watts, Harry Reynolds, Michael Johnson) | 2:54.29 | Stuttgart, Germany | 22 August 1993 |
| South American record | Brazil (Eronilde de Araújo, Cleverson da Silva, Claudinei da Silva, Sanderlei Parrela) | 2:58.56 | Winnipeg, Canada | 30 July 1999 |
| European record | Great Britain (Iwan Thomas, Jamie Baulch, Mark Richardson, Roger Black) | 2:56.60 | Atlanta, United States | 3 August 1996 |
| Oceanian record | Australia (Bruce Frayne, Gary Minihan, Richard Mitchell, Darren Clark) | 2:59.70 | Los Angeles, United States | 11 August 1984 |

## Qualification standards

| A time | B time |
| 3:04.00 ||

## Schedule

| Date | Time | Round |
| 1 September 2011 | 12:30 | Heats |
| 2 September 2011 | 21:15 | Final |

## Results

| KEY: | q | Fastest non-qualifiers | Q | Qualified | NR | National record | PB | Personal best | SB | Seasonal best |

### Heats

Qualification: First 3 of each heat (Q) plus the 2 fastest times (q) advance to the final.
| Rank | Heat | Nation | Athletes | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 1 | United States (USA) | Greg Nixon, Jamaal Torrance, Michael Berry, LaShawn Merritt | 2:58.82 | Q, WL |
| 2 | 1 | Jamaica (JAM) | Allodin Fothergill, Riker Hylton, Lansford Spence, Leford Green | 2:59.13 | Q, SB |
| 3 | 1 | South Africa (RSA) | Oscar Pistorius, Ofentse Mogawane, Willem de Beer, Shane Victor | 2:59.21 | Q, NR |
| 4 | 1 | Great Britain & N.I. (GBR) | Richard Strachan, Nigel Levine, Christopher Clarke, Martyn Rooney | 3:00.38 | q |
| 5 | 1 | Germany (GER) | Jonas Plass, Kamghe Gaba, Eric Krüger, Thomas Schneider | 3:00.68 | q |
| 6 | 2 | Belgium (BEL) | Antoine Gillet, Jonathan Borlée, Nils Duerinck, Kévin Borlée | 3:00.71 | Q, SB |
| 7 | 2 | Russia (RUS) | Maksim Dyldin, Konstantin Svechkar, Pavel Trenikhin, Denis Alekseyev | 3:00.81 | Q, SB |
| 8 | 2 | Kenya (KEN) | Vincent Kiplangat Kosgei, Anderson Mureta Mutegi, Vincent Mumo Kiilu, Mark Mutai | 3:00.97 | Q, SB |
| 9 | 2 | Bahamas (BAH) | Ramon Miller, Avard Moncur, Andrae Williams, LaToy Williams | 3:01.54 | |
| 10 | 2 | Australia (AUS) | Ben Offereins, Tristan Thomas, Steven Solomon, Sean Wroe | 3:01.56 | SB |
| 11 | 2 | Poland (POL) | Kacper Kozłowski, Piotr Wiaderek, Jakub Krzewina, Marcin Marciniszyn | 3:01.84 | SB |
| 12 | 1 | Trinidad and Tobago (TRI) | Zwede Hewitt, Jarrin Solomon, Deon Lendore, Renny Quow | 3:02.47 | |
| 13 | 1 | Japan (JPN) | Kei Takase, Yuzo Kanemaru, Yusuke Ishitsuka, Hideyuki Hirose | 3:02.64 | SB |
| 14 | 2 | France (FRA) | Nicolas Fillon, Teddy Venel, Mamoudou Hanne, Yoann Décimus | 3:03.68 | |
| 15 | 1 | South Korea (KOR) | Park Bong-Go, Lim Chan-Ho, Lee Jun, Seong Hyeok-Je | 3:04.05 | NR |
| 16 | 2 | Saudi Arabia (KSA) | Ismail Al-Sabani, Yousef Ahmed Masrahi, Hamed Al-Bishi, Mohammed Al-Salhi | 3:05.65 | SB |

### Final

| Rank | Lane | Nation | Athletes | Time | Notes |
| | 5 | United States (USA) | Greg Nixon, Bershawn Jackson, Angelo Taylor, LaShawn Merritt | 2:59.31 | |
| | 8 | South Africa (RSA) | Shane Victor, Ofentse Mogawane, Willem de Beer, L. J. van Zyl | 2:59.87 | |
| | 4 | Jamaica (JAM) | Allodin Fothergill, Jermaine Gonzales, Riker Hylton, Leford Green | 3:00.10 | |
| 4 | 3 | Russia (RUS) | Maksim Dyldin, Konstantin Svechkar, Pavel Trenikhin, Denis Alekseyev | 3:00.22 | SB |
| 5 | 6 | Belgium (BEL) | Jonathan Borlée, Antoine Gillet, Nils Duerinck, Kévin Borlée | 3:00.41 | SB |
| 6 | 7 | Kenya (KEN) | Vincent Kiplangat Kosgei, Vincent Mumo Kiilu, Anderson Mureta Mutegi, Mark Mutai | 3:01.15 | |
| 7 | 1 | Great Britain & N.I. (GBR) | Richard Strachan, Nigel Levine, Christopher Clarke, Martyn Rooney | 3:01.16 | |
| 8 | 2 | Germany (GER) | Jonas Plass, Kamghe Gaba, Miguel Rigau, Thomas Schneider | 3:01.37 | |