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

The women'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

The Jamaican team announced their intention to win this race early in the championships by placing all four of their relay team members in the top six of the final of the 400 metres. The American squad had two women in that same race, one of them the winner Allyson Felix. Their ace in the hole was having the top two in the world, prior to the American championships, fail to make the individual event but were available for the relay. Both Olympic Champion Sanya Richards-Ross and World Indoor Champion Francena McCorory demonstrated their occasional ability to run excellent 350 meter races in that meet, their flailing last 50 metres is why they didn't qualify for the individual race. All the other teams ran their season best just to make the finals, Bahamas and Japan set National Records and still failed to qualify.
In the final, it was a reminder of 2008 on this same track as Richards-Ross was out aggressively, making up the stagger on Christine Ohuruogu and when she hit the home stretch, she was out of gas. Meanwhile, to their outside, Christine Day was running smoothly to give Jamaica a big lead, Shericka Jackson. Natasha Hastings ran a quick turn to barely hold off Anyika Onuora at the break. Jackson started her leg conservatively, so the gap looked manageable, until she started cranking and the lead gap started growing. Jamaica had an almost two second lead when Jackson handed off to Stephenie Ann McPherson, Hastings helped the USA hold off the British team before handing off to the American's star, Felix. The gap looked impossible at the beginning but Felix closed it down. It took Felix 350 metres to catch McPherson, but it was a steady race throughout and when Felix got there she just continued on by, handing off to world #3 Francena McCorory with the lead. Jamaica had Novlene Williams-Mills on the anchor leg, starting 2 metres down. Down the backstretch and into the final turn, McCorory held the same gap on Williams-Mills, then through the turn the gap started to widen. Onto the home stretch, Williams-Mills moved out to lane 2 to look for running room. 70 metres before the finish, McCorory's arm movement got bigger but her legs got noticeably slower. Williams-Mills cruised on by a helpless McCorory with powerful sprint form across the line for gold. Well behind the leaders, the British team was challenged by Nigeria until Patience Okon George met with a similar collapse. While Seren Bundy-Davies carried the British home for bronze, George was overtaken at the line by Russia's Kseniya Aksyonova.
Felix's leg was timed at 47.72 seconds, the fastest of her career and the third fastest women's relay leg ever measured, just .02 seconds off the fastest measured electronically.

## Records

Prior to the competition, the records were as follows:
| World record | Soviet Union (Tatyana Ledovskaya, Olga Nazarova, Mariya Kulchunova, Olga Bryzgina) | 3:15.17 | Seoul, South Korea | 1 October 1988 |
| Championship record | United States (Gwen Torrence, Maicel Malone-Wallace, Natasha Kaiser-Brown, Jearl Miles Clark) | 3:16.71 | Stuttgart, Germany | 22 August 1993 |
| World leading | United States (Phyllis Francis, Natasha Hastings, Sanya Richards-Ross, Francena McCorory | 3:19.39 | Nassau, Bahamas | 3 May 2015 |
| African record | Nigeria (Olabisi Afolabi, Fatima Yusuf, Charity Opara, Falilat Ogunkoya) | 3:21.04 | Atlanta, United States | 3 August 1996 |
| Asian record | China Hebei province (An Xiaohong, Bai Xiaoyun, Cao Chunying, Ma Yuqin) | 3:24.28 | Beijing, China | 13 September 1993 |
| North, Central American and Caribbean record | United States (Denean Howard-Hill, Diane Dixon, Valerie Brisco-Hooks, Florence Griffith Joyner) | 3:15.51 | Seoul, South Korea | 1 October 1988 |
| South American record | Brazil BM&F Bovespa (Geisa Aparecida Coutinho, Bárbara de Oliveira, Joelma Sousa, Jailma de Lima) | 3:26.68 | São Paulo, Brazil | 7 August 2011 |
| European record | Soviet Union (Tatyana Ledovskaya, Olga Nazarova, Mariya Kulchunova, Olga Bryzgina) | 3:15.17 | Seoul, South Korea | 1 October 1988 |
| Oceanian record | Australia (Nova Peris, Tamsyn Manou, Melinda Gainsford-Taylor, Cathy Freeman) | 3:23.81 | Sydney, Australia | 30 September 2000 |
| The following records were established during the competition: |||||
| World Leading | Jamaica (Christine Day, Shericka Jackson, Stephenie Ann McPherson, Novlene Williams-Mills) | 3:19.13 | Beijing, China | 30 August 2015 |

## Qualification standards

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

## Schedule

| Date | Time | Round |
| 29 August 2015 | 10:15 | Heats |
| 30 August 2015 | 20:05 | Final |
All times are local times (UTC+8)

## Results
### Heats

Qualification: First 2 of each heat (Q) plus the 2 fastest times (q) advance to the final.
| Rank | Heat | Lane | Nation | Athletes | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 2 | 4 | United States (USA) | Phyllis Francis, Jessica Beard, Sanya Richards-Ross, Francena McCorory | 3:23.05 | Q |
| 2 | 1 | 8 | Nigeria (NGR) | Regina George, Funke Oladoye, Tosin Adeloye, Patience Okon George | 3:23.27 | Q, SB |
| 3 | 1 | 4 | Jamaica (JAM) | Anastasia Le-Roy, Shericka Jackson, Chrisann Gordon, Christine Day | 3:23.62 | Q |
| 4 | 1 | 2 | Russia (RUS) | Mariya Mikhailyuk, Ksenia Zadorina, Ekaterina Renzhina, Kseniya Aksyonova | 3:23.75 | Q, SB |
| 5 | 2 | 9 | Great Britain & N.I. (GBR) | Eilidh Child, Anyika Onuora, Kirsten McAslan, Seren Bundy-Davies | 3:23.90 | Q, SB |
| 6 | 2 | 3 | France (FRA) | Estelle Perrossier, Marie Gayot, Agnès Raharolahy, Floria Gueï | 3:24.86 | Q, SB |
| 7 | 2 | 2 | Ukraine (UKR) | Yuliya Olishevska, Olha Bibik, Olha Zemlyak, Olha Lyakhova | 3:26.01 | q, SB |
| 8 | 1 | 3 | Canada (CAN) | Carline Muir, Aiyanna Stiverne, Sage Watson, Nicole Sassine | 3:26.14 | q, SB |
| 9 | 2 | 7 | Italy (ITA) | Maria Benedicta Chigbolu, Elena Maria Bonfanti, Ayomide Folorunso, Chiara Bazzoni | 3:27.07 | SB |
| 10 | 2 | 8 | Bahamas (BAH) | Lanece Clarke, Christine Amertil, Katrina Seymour, Shaunae Miller | 3:28.46 | NR |
| 11 | 1 | 7 | Romania (ROM) | Andreea Grecu, Anamaria Ioniță, Sanda Belgyan, Bianca Răzor | 3:28.60 | SB |
| 12 | 1 | 6 | Australia (AUS) | Anneliese Rubie, Jessica Gulli, Lauren Wells, Morgan Mitchell | 3:28.61 | SB |
| 13 | 2 | 6 | Japan (JPN) | Seika Aoyama, Kana Ichikawa, Asami Chiba, Sayaka Aoki | 3:28.91 | NR |
| 14 | 2 | 5 | India (IND) | Jisna Mathew, Tintu Lukka, Debasree Majumdar, M. R. Poovamma | 3:29.08 | SB |
| 15 | 1 | 9 | Poland (POL) | Małgorzata Hołub, Patrycja Wyciszkiewicz, Joanna Linkiewicz, Justyna Święty | 3:32.83 | |
| 16 | 1 | 5 | China (CHN) | Huang Guifen, Wang Huan, Li Xue, Cheng Chong | 3:34.98 | |

### Final

The final was held at 20:05
| Rank | Lane | Nation | Athletes | Time | Notes |
| | 6 | Jamaica (JAM) | Christine Day, Shericka Jackson, Stephenie Ann McPherson, Novlene Williams-Mills | 3:19.13 | WL |
| | 4 | United States (USA) | Sanya Richards-Ross, Natasha Hastings, Allyson Felix, Francena McCorory | 3:19.44 | |
| | 5 | Great Britain & N.I. (GBR) | Christine Ohuruogu, Anyika Onuora, Eilidh Child, Seren Bundy-Davies | 3:23.62 | SB |
| 4 | 8 | Russia (RUS) | Nadezhda Kotlyarova, Ksenia Zadorina, Kseniya Ryzhova, Kseniya Aksyonova | 3:24.84 | |
| 5 | 7 | Nigeria (NGR) | Regina George, Funke Oladoye, Tosin Adeloye, Patience Okon George | 3:25.11 | |
| 6 | 2 | Ukraine (UKR) | Olha Zemlyak, Nataliia Lupu, Nataliya Pyhyda, Olha Lyakhova | 3:25.94 | SB |
| 7 | 9 | France (FRA) | Estelle Perrossier, Marie Gayot, Agnès Raharolahy, Floria Gueï | 3:26.45 | |
| 8 | 3 | Canada (CAN) | Carline Muir, Aiyanna Stiverne, Sage Watson, Audrey Jean-Baptiste | 3:27.69 | |