page_title: Relay race
section_title: Rules and strategy
hierarchical_section_title: Relay race / Relays in athletics / Rules and strategy
caption_attribution_description: Two runners prepare to pass a baton during a relay race.
context_page_description: A relay race is a racing competition where members of a team take turns completing parts of racecourse or performing a certain action. Relay races take the form of professional races and amateur games. Relay races are common in running, orienteering, swimming, cross-country skiing, biathlon, or ice skating. In the Olympic Games, there are several types of relay races that are part of track and field. Relay race, also called Relay, a track-and-field sport consisting of a set number of stages, usually four, each leg run by a different member of a team. The runner finishing one leg is usually required to pass the next runner a stick-like object known as a "baton" while both are running in a marked exchange zone. In most relays, team members cover equal distances: Olympic events for both men and women are the 400-metre and 1,600-metre relays. Some non-Olympic relays are held at distances of 800 m, 3,200 m, and 6,000 m. In the less frequently run medley relays, however, the athletes cover different distances in a prescribed order—as in a sprint medley of 200, 200, 400, 800 metres or a distance medley of 1,200, 400, 800, 1,600 metres
context_section_description: Each runner must hand off the baton to the next runner within a certain zone, usually marked by triangles on the track. In sprint relays, runners typically use a "blind handoff", where the second runner stands on a spot predetermined in practice and starts running when the first runner hits a visual mark on the track (usually a smaller triangle). The second runner opens their hand behind them after a few strides, by which time the first runner should be caught up and able to hand off the baton. Usually a runner will give an auditory signal, such as "Stick!" repeated several times, for the recipient of the baton to put out his hand. In middle-distance relays or longer, runners begin by jogging while looking back at the incoming runner and holding out a hand for the baton.
  A team may be disqualified from a relay for:
  Losing the baton (dropping the baton shall not result in disqualification.see IAAF rule no. 170.6)
  Making an improper baton pass, especially when not passing in the exchange zone
  False starting (usually once but sometimes twice)
  Improperly overtaking another competitor
  Preventing another competitor from passing
  Wilfully impeding, improperly crossing the course, or in any other way interfering with another competitor
  Based on the speed of the runners, the generally accepted strategy used in setting up a four-person relay team is: second-fastest, third-fastest, slowest, then fastest (anchor); however some teams (usually middle school or young high school) use second-fastest, slowest, third-fastest, then the fastest (anchor). But if a runner is better in the starting blocks than the others, he is sometimes moved to the first spot because it is the only spot that uses starting blocks.
caption: Two runners prepare to pass the baton.
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