# 2015 World Championships in Athletics – Men's 4 × 400 metres relay

The men's 4 × 400 metres relay at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Beijing National Stadium on 29 and 30 August.

## Summary

During the heats, the United States and Trinidad and Tobago showed they were teams to be reckoned with. Botswana showed immense raw talent but in severe need of coaching in the finesse of running competitive relays. Elite American high school teams like Long Beach Poly, where Bryshon Nellum attended, would have been taught how to deal with handoff traffic and Botswana should have qualified.
In the finals, the first legs between Trinidad and Tobago (Renny Quow), Great Britain (Rabah Yousif) and USA (David Verburg) were relatively close, exchanging in that order. France, Belgium and Jamaica were all close in the mix. American Tony McQuay sped around the turn before the break and got enough of a lead to shut the door on the other teams, gaining a couple of metres as they dropped back to regroup and try to pass. Lalonde Gordon was able to put T&T slightly ahead at the handoff with a gap back to Great Britain and France, with Jamaica a few steps further behind. Down the backstretch Rusheen McDonald brought Jamaica around into third. As he paid for his efforts on the home stretch, he served as a blockade for Britain and France, Kevin Borlée brought Belgium around the outside into third by the handoff. On the front, Deon Lendore, chased by Nellum stayed relatively even, with 400 finalist Machel Cedenio taking the baton ahead of 400 silver medalist LaShawn Merritt. Merritt fell in behind Cedenio, who he had beaten by a second and a half four days earlier, to strategically prepare for a final pass. Javon Francis brought Jamaica all the way from fifth place to sprinting past the lead duo on the backstretch. Merritt went around Cedenio and started moving in on Francis for that final move. Coming onto the home stretch, Merritt executed his best move on Francis leaving him behind while Martyn Rooney was edging up on Cedenio. Francis, paying for his early speed, began to look like slow motion while everybody else was in real time. Merritt went on to victory, Cedenio separated from Rooney and sped past Francis for silver, and just at the line, Rooney was able to dip past Francis for bronze so close it took the photo finish readers a minute to determine.

## Records

Prior to the competition, the records were as follows:
| 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 | United States (David Verburg, Tony McQuay, Jeremy Wariner, LaShawn Merritt) | 2:58.43 | Nassau, Bahamas | 3 May 2015 |
| 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, GA, 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, Mark Richardson, Jamie Baulch, Roger Black) | 2:56.60 | Atlanta, GA, United States | 3 August 1996 |
| Oceanian record | Australia (Bruce Frayne, Gary Minihan, Rick Mitchell, Darren Clark) | 2:59.70 | Los Angeles, CA, United States | 11 August 1984 |
| The following records were established during the competition: |||||
| World Leading | United States (Kyle Clemons, Tony McQuay, Bryshon Nellum, Vernon Norwood) | 2:58.13 | Beijing, China | 29 August 2015 |
| World Leading | United States (David Verburg, Tony McQuay, Bryshon Nellum, LaShawn Merritt) | 2:57.82 | Beijing, China | 30 August 2015 |

## Qualification standards

* Entry standards
* Top 8 at IWR+ 8 from Top Lists

## Schedule

| Date | Time | Round |
| 29 August 2015 | 10:40 | Heats |
| 30 August 2015 | 20:25 | Final |
All times are local times (UTC+8)

## Results
### Heats

Qualification: First 3 of each heat (Q) plus the 2 fastest times (q) advance to the final.
| Rank | Heat | Lane | Nation | Athletes | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 2 | 6 | United States (USA) | Kyle Clemons, Tony McQuay, Bryshon Nellum, Vernon Norwood | 2:58.13 | Q, WL |
| 2 | 2 | 2 | Trinidad and Tobago (TTO) | Renny Quow, Jarrin Solomon, Deon Lendore, Lalonde Gordon | 2:58.67 | Q, SB |
| 3 | 2 | 8 | Jamaica (JAM) | Peter Matthews, Ricardo Chambers, Dane Hyatt, Javon Francis | 2:58.69 | Q, SB |
| 4 | 1 | 8 | Great Britain & N.I. (GBR) | Rabah Yousif, Delano Williams, Jarryd Dunn, Martyn Rooney | 2:59.05 | Q, SB |
| 5 | 1 | 2 | Belgium (BEL) | Dylan Borlée, Jonathan Borlée, Antoine Gillet, Kevin Borlée | 2:59.28 | Q, NR |
| 6 | 1 | 7 | France (FRA) | Mame-Ibra Anne, Teddy Atine-Venel, Mamoudou Hanne, Thomas Jordier | 2:59.42 | Q, SB |
| 7 | 1 | 3 | Russia (RUS) | Artem Denmukhametov, Pavel Trenikhin, Denis Kudryavtsev, Pavel Ivashko | 2:59.45 | q, NR |
| 8 | 2 | 7 | Cuba (CUB) | William Collazo, Raidel Acea, Adrian Chacón, Yoandys Lescay | 2:59.80 | q, SB |
| 9 | 2 | 3 | Botswana (BOT) | Onkabetse Nkobolo, Nijel Amos, Leaname Maotoanong, Isaac Makwala | 2:59.95 | NR |
| 10 | 2 | 5 | Dominican Republic (DOM) | Gustavo Cuesta, Yon Soriano, Juander Santos, Luguelín Santos | 3:00.15 | NR |
| 11 | 1 | 9 | Poland (POL) | Łukasz Krawczuk, Michał Pietrzak, Rafał Omelko, Jakub Krzewina | 3:00.72 | SB |
| 12 | 2 | 4 | Brazil (BRA) | Pedro Luiz de Oliveira, Wagner Cardoso, Hederson Estefani, Hugo de Sousa | 3:01.05 | |
| 13 | 2 | 9 | Ireland (IRL) | Brian Gregan, Brian Murphy, Thomas Barr, Mark English | 3:01.26 | NR |
| 14 | 1 | 5 | Venezuela (VEN) | Alberth Bravo, José Meléndez, Arturo Ramírez, Freddy Mezones | 3:02.96 | SB |
| 15 | 1 | 4 | Japan (JPN) | Tomoya Tamura, Yuzo Kanemaru, Naoki Kobayashi, Takamasa Kitagawa | 3:02.97 | SB |
| | 1 | 6 | Bahamas (BAH) | Steven Gardiner, Michael Mathieu, Alonzo Russell, Ramon Miller | DQ | R163.3a |

### Final

The final was held at 20:25
| Rank | Lane | Nation | Athletes | Time | Notes |
| | 7 | United States (USA) | David Verburg, Tony McQuay, Bryshon Nellum, LaShawn Merritt | 2:57.82 | WL |
| | 4 | Trinidad and Tobago (TTO) | Renny Quow, Lalonde Gordon, Deon Lendore, Machel Cedenio | 2:58.20 | NR |
| | 6 | Great Britain & N.I. (GBR) | Rabah Yousif, Delano Williams, Jarryd Dunn, Martyn Rooney | 2:58.51 | SB |
| 4 | 9 | Jamaica (JAM) | Peter Matthews, Ricardo Chambers, Rusheen McDonald, Javon Francis | 2:58.51 | SB |
| 5 | 5 | Belgium (BEL) | Jonathan Borlée, Robin Vanderbemden, Kevin Borlée, Antoine Gillet | 3:00.24 | |
| 6 | 8 | France (FRA) | Mame-Ibra Anne, Teddy Atine-Venel, Mamoudou Hanne, Thomas Jordier | 3:00.65 | |
| 7 | 3 | Cuba (CUB) | William Collazo, Raidel Acea, Adrián Chacón, Yoandys Lescay | 3:03.05 | |
| 8 | 2 | Russia (RUS) | Artem Denmukhametov, Pavel Trenikhin, Denis Alekseyev, Pavel Ivashko | 3:03.05 | |