# Athletics at the 1968 Summer Olympics – Men's 4 × 100 metres relay

These are the official results of the men's 4 × 100 metres relay event at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, Mexico. The event was held on Saturday and Sunday, 19 and 20 October 1968. There were a total number of 19 nations competing. The race was won by the United States in world record time.
During the heats, Jamaica had equalled the world record 38.6 (38.65) and improved upon it in the semi-finals 38.3 (38.39).
The random seeding of the final had semifinal 1 winner, with the fastest time, Jamaica in lane 5, but semifinal 2 winner Cuba in lane one and semifinal 2 runner up United States in lane 2, both regarded as inferior lanes. While Charles Greene got a quick start, USA struggled with poor handoffs so East Germany in lane 4 was the clear leader on the backstretch, with Jamaica and Cuba the closest competitors and Mel Pender racing to catch up. Through the turn Ronnie Ray Smith continued to chase Pablo Montes. East Germany still had the lead going into the final handoff, USA still behind Cuba but with a smooth handoff and France in competitive position. The East Germans took three attempts to finally make a handoff, losing ground. Once with baton in hand Jim Hines was clearly faster than Enrique Figuerola, catching him halfway down the straightaway and on to a two-metre victory. Lennox Miller equally outran Harald Eggers, but Roger Bambuck was able to hold off Miller and dive for the bronze medal for France.
The USA's time was a Fully automatic timing world record that was faster than the hand timed mark from before the Olympics. Miller had been the anchor of that previous record as well as the two Jamaican records earlier in the competition, though the 1967 USC record was never accepted as a world record by the IAAF because Miller was from a different country from his teammates (who included Earl McCullouch and O. J. Simpson).

## Medalists

| Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| United States (USA) Charles Greene Mel Pender Ronnie Ray Smith Jim Hines | Cuba (CUB) Hermes Ramírez Juan Morales Pablo Montes Enrique Figuerola | France (FRA) Gérard Fenouil Jocelyn Delecour Claude Piquemal Roger Bambuck |

## Records

These were the standing World and Olympic records (in seconds) prior to the 1968 Summer Olympics.
| World Record | 38.4yA | Earl McCullouch Fred Kuller O. J. Simpson Lennox Miller | Provo (USA) | 17 June 1967 |
| Olympic Record | 39.0 | Paul Drayton Gerry Ashworth Richard Stebbins Bob Hayes | Tokyo (JPN) | 21 October 1964 |

## Results
### Final

* Held on Sunday 20 October 1968
| RANK | NATION | ATHLETES | TIME |
| | United States (USA) | • Charles Greene • Mel Pender • Ronnie Ray Smith • Jim Hines | 38.24 (WR) |
| | Cuba (CUB) | • Hermes Ramírez • Juan Morales • Pablo Montes • Enrique Figuerola | 38.40 |
| | France (FRA) | • Gérard Fenouil • Jocelyn Delecour • Claude Piquemal • Roger Bambuck | 38.43 |
| 4. | Jamaica (JAM) | • Errol Stewart • Michael Fray • Clifton Forbes • Lennox Miller | 38.4 |
| 5. | East Germany (GDR) | • Heinz Erbstösser • Hartmut Schelter • Peter Haase • Harald Eggers | 38.6 |
| 6. | West Germany (FRG) | • Karl-Peter Schmidtke • Gert Metz • Gerhard Wucherer • Joachim Eigenherr | 38.7 |
| 7. | Italy (ITA) | • Sergio Ottolina • Ennio Preatoni • Angelo Sguazzero • Livio Berruti | 39.2 |
| 8. | Poland (POL) | • Wieslaw Maniak • Edward Romanowski • Zenon Nowosz • Marian Dudziak | 39.2 |

### Semifinals

* Held on Saturday 19 October 1968

#### Heat 1

| RANK | NATION | ATHLETES | TIME |
| 1. | Jamaica (JAM) | • Errol Stewart • Michael Fray • Clifton Forbes • Lennox Miller | 38.3 (WR) |
| 2. | East Germany (GDR) | • Heinz Erbstösser • Hartmut Schelter • Peter Haase • Harald Eggers | 38.7 |
| 3. | West Germany (FRG) | • Karl-Peter Schmidtke • Gert Metz • Gerhard Wucherer • Joachim Eigenherr | 38.9 |
| 4. | Poland (POL) | • Wieslaw Maniak • Edward Romanowski • Zenon Nowosz • Marian Dudziak | 38.9 |
| 5. | Great Britain (GBR) | • Joseph Speake • Ron Jones • Ralph Banthorpe • Barrie Kelly | 39.4 |
| 6. | Trinidad and Tobago (TRI) | • Raymond Fabien • Winston Short • Carl Archer • Edwin Roberts | 39.5 |
| 7. | Ivory Coast (CIV) | • Atta Kouaukou • N'dri Kouame • Boy Diby • Gaoussou Kone | 39.6 |
| 8. | Malaysia (MAS) | • Mani Jegathesan • Tambusamy Krishnan • Rajalingam Gunaratnam • Ooi Hock Lim | 40.8 |

#### Heat 2

| RANK | NATION | ATHLETES | TIME |
| 1. | Cuba (CUB) | • Hermes Ramírez • Juan Morales • Pablo Montes • Enrique Figuerola | 38.6 |
| 2. | United States (USA) | • Charles Greene • Mel Pender • Ronnie Ray Smith • Jim Hines | 38.6 |
| 3. | France (FRA) | • Gérard Fenouil • Jocelyn Delecour • Claude Piquemal • Roger Bambuck | 38.8 |
| 4. | Italy (ITA) | • Sergio Ottolina • Ennio Preatoni • Angelo Sguazzero • Livio Berruti | 39.4 |
| 5. | Ghana (GHA) | • Edward Owusu • Michael Ahey • William Quaye • James Addy | 39.9 |
| — | Bahamas (BAH) | • Gerald Wisdom • Thomas Robinson • Bernard Nottage • Edwin Johnson | DQ |
| — | Nigeria (NGR) | • Timon Oyebami • Robert Ojo • Benedict Majekodunmi • Kola Abdulai | DQ |
| — | Soviet Union (URS) | • Aleksey Khlopotnov • Eugeny Siniaev • Nikolay Ivanov • Vladislav Sapeia | DQ |

### Heats

* Held on Saturday 19 October 1968

#### Heat 1

| RANK | NATION | ATHLETES | TIME |
| 1. | Cuba (CUB) | • Hermes Ramírez • Juan Morales • Pablo Montes • Enrique Figuerola | 38.7 |
| 2. | United States (USA) | • Charlie Greene • Mel Pender • Ronnie Ray Smith • Jim Hines | 38.8 |
| 3. | Trinidad and Tobago (TTO) | • Raymond Fabien • Winston Short • Carl Archer • Edwin Roberts | 38.9 |
| 4. | Bahamas (BAH) | • Jerry Wisdom • Tom Robinson • Bernard Nottage • Edwin Johnson | 39.4 |
| 5. | Nigeria (NGR) | • Timon Oyebami • Robert Ojo • Benedict Majekodunmi • Kola Abdulai | 39.4 |
| 6. | Ghana (GHA) | • Edward Owusu • Mike Ahey • William Quaye • James Addy | 39.8 |
| 7. | Dominican Republic (DOM) | • Luis Soriano • Alberto Torres • Rafael Domínguez • Porfirio Veras | 41.4 |

#### Heat 2

| RANK | NATION | ATHLETES | TIME |
| 1. | Jamaica (JAM) | • Errol Stewart • Mike Fray • Clifton Forbes • Lennox Miller | 38.6 |
| 2. | France (FRA) | • Gérard Fenouil • Jocelyn Delecour • Claude Piquemal • Roger Bambuck | 39.0 |
| 3. | West Germany (FRG) | • Karl-Peter Schmidtke • Gert Metz • Gerhard Wucherer • Jochen Eigenherr | 39.1 |
| 4. | Great Britain (GBR) | • Joseph Speake • Ron Jones • Ralph Banthorpe • Barrie Kelly | 39.3 |
| 5. | Ivory Coast (CIV) | • Atta Kouakou • Kouami N'Dri • Boy Akba Diby • Gaoussou Koné | 39.6 |
| 6. | Japan (JPN) | • Naoki Abe • Hiroomi Yamada • Shinji Ogura • Hideo Iijima | 40.0 |
| 7. | Mexico (MEX) | • Félix Bécquer • Enrique Labadie • Galdino Flores • Miguel Angel González | 40.0 |

#### Heat 3

| RANK | NATION | ATHLETES | TIME |
| 1. | East Germany (GDR) | • Heinz Erbstößer • Hartmut Schelter • Peter Haase • Harald Eggers | 38.9 |
| 2. | Soviet Union (URS) | • Oleksiy Khlopotnov • Yevgeny Sinyayev • Nikolay Ivanov • Vladislav Sapeya | 39.0 |
| 3. | Poland (POL) | • Wiesław Maniak • Edward Romanowski • Zenon Nowosz • Marian Dudziak | 40.2 |
| 4. | Malaysia (MAS) | • Mani Jegathesan • Tambusamy Krishnan • Rajalingam Gunaratnam • Ooi Hock Lim | 40.6 |
| 5. | Italy (ITA) | • Sergio Ottolina • Ennio Preatoni • Angelo Sguazzero • Livio Berruti | 41.5 |