# 1997 World Championships in Athletics – Men's 4 × 400 metres relay

These are the results of the Men's 4 × 400 metres relay event at the 1997 World Championships in Athletics in Athens, Greece.
The gold medal was originally won by the US team, but the team were retrospectively disqualified in 2009 after Antonio Pettigrew admitted to using human growth hormone and EPO between 1997 and 2003.

## Medalists

| Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| Great Britain Iwan Thomas Roger Black Jamie Baulch Mark Richardson Mark Hylton* | Jamaica Michael McDonald Gregory Haughton Danny McFarlane Davian Clarke Linval Laird* | Poland Tomasz Czubak Piotr Rysiukiewicz Piotr Haczek Robert Maćkowiak |
* Runners who participated in the heats only and received medals.

## Results
### Heats

Qualification: First 2 of each heat (Q) plus the 2 fastest times (q) advance to the final.
| Rank | Heat | Nation | Athletes | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 2 | Poland | Tomasz Czubak, Piotr Rysiukiewicz, Piotr Haczek, Robert Maćkowiak | 2:59.91 | Q, NR |
| 2 | 2 | Jamaica | Linval Laird, Davian Clarke, Gregory Haughton, Danny McFarlane | 2:59.98 | Q, SB |
| 3 | 1 | Great Britain | Mark Hylton, Roger Black, Jamie Baulch, Iwan Thomas | 3:00.19 | Q |
| 4 | 2 | South Africa | Arnaud Malherbe, Hezekiel Sepeng, Hendrik Mokganyetsi, Llewellyn Herbert | 3:00.19 | q, NR |
| 5 | 3 | Zimbabwe | Tawanda Chiwira, Phillip Mukomana, Savieri Ngidhi, Ken Harnden | 3:00.19 | Q, NR |
| 6 | 3 | Italy | Ashraf Saber, Marco Vaccari, Andrea Nuti, Fabrizio Mori | 3:01.75 | q, SB |
| 7 | 1 | France | Jean-Louis Rapnouil, Marc Foucan, Fred Mango, Stephane Diagana | 3:01.76 | Q, SB |
| 8 | 1 | Austria | Christoph Postinger, Thomas Griesser, Andreas Rechbauer, Rafik Elouardi | 3:02.95 | NR |
| 9 | 2 | Russia | Mikhail Vdovin, Innokentiy Zharov, Dmitriy Golovastov, Ruslan Mashchenko | 3:03.35 | |
| 10 | 3 | Japan | Shunji Karube, Seiji Inagaki, Hiroyuki Hayashi, Shigekazu Omori | 3:03.35 | SB |
| 11 | 1 | Nigeria | Ayuba Machen, Tony Ogbeta, Udeme Ekpeyong, Clement Chukwu | 3:04.19 | |
| 12 | 2 | Latvia | Sergejs Inšakovs, Egils Tebelis, Einars Tupuritis, Inguns Sviklins | 3:04.30 | NR |
| 13 | 1 | Algeria | Samir-Adel Louahla, Talhaodi Kamel, Malik-Khaled Louahla, Amar Hacini | 3:05.22 | |
| 14 | 3 | Switzerland | Laurent Clerc, Kevin Widmer, Matthias Rusterholz, Marcel Schelbert | 3:05.34 | SB |
| 15 | 1 | Spain | César Martínez, Antonio Andres, Pablo Jaime Vallejo, David Canal | 3:05.34 | |
| 15 | 2 | Greece | Panagiotis Sarris, Konstantinos Moumoulidis, Georgios Batsikas, Periklis Iakovakis | 3:05.43 | NR |
| 16 | 3 | Czech Republic | Jan Poděbradský, Jiří Svenek, Jan Stejfa, Jiří Mužík | 3:05.65 | |
| 17 | 1 | Botswana | Justice Dipeba, Lulu Basinyi, Rampa Mosweu, Johnson Kubisa | 3:05.96 | NR |
| | 3 | United States | Jerome Young, Antonio Pettigrew, Chris Jones, Allen Johnson | DQ | |

### Final

| Rank | Nation | Competitors | Time | Notes |
| | Great Britain | Iwan Thomas, Roger Black, Jamie Baulch, Mark Richardson | 2:56.65 | |
| | Jamaica | Michael McDonald, Gregory Haughton, Danny McFarlane, Davian Clarke | 2:56.75 | NR |
| | Poland | Tomasz Czubak, Piotr Rysiukiewicz, Piotr Haczek, Robert Maćkowiak | 3:00.26 | |
| 4 | South Africa | Arnaud Malherbe, Hezekiel Sepeng, Hendrik Mokganyetsi, Llewellyn Herbert | 3:00.26 | NR |
| 5 | France | Jean-Louis Rapnouil, Marc Foucan, Fred Mango, Stephane Diagana | 3:01.07 | |
| 6 | Zimbabwe | Tawanda Chiwira, Phillip Mukomana, Savieri Ngidhi, Ken Harnden | 3:01.43 | |
| 7 | Italy | Ashraf Saber, Marco Vaccari, Andrea Nuti, Fabrizio Mori | 3:01.52 | |
| DSQ | United States | Jerome Young, Antonio Pettigrew, Chris Jones, Tyree Washington | 2:56.47 | |