Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Women's 4 × 400 metres relay

Women's 4 × 400 metres relay at the Games of the XXX Olympiad
Gold medal winners
Venue	Olympic Stadium
Date	10–11 August
Teams	16
Winning time	3:16.87
Medalists
DeeDee Trotter Allyson Felix Francena McCorory Sanya Richards-Ross Keshia Baker* Diamond Dixon*  United States Yulia Gushchina Antonina Krivoshapka Tatyana Firova Natalya Antyukh Natalya Nazarova* Anastasiya Kapachinskaya*  Russia Christine Day Rosemarie Whyte Shericka Williams Novlene Williams-Mills Shereefa Lloyd*  Jamaica

Official Video

Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics
Track events
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
400 m		men		women
800 m		men		women
1500 m		men		women
5000 m		men		women
10,000 m		men		women
100 m hurdles				women
110 m hurdles		men
400 m hurdles		men		women
3000 m steeplechase		men		women
4×100 m relay		men		women
4×400 m relay		men		women
Road events
Marathon		men		women
20 km walk		men		women
50 km walk		men
Field events
Long jump		men		women
Triple jump		men		women
High jump		men		women
Pole vault		men		women
Shot put		men		women
Discus throw		men		women
Javelin throw		men		women
Hammer throw		men		women
Combined events
Heptathlon				women
Decathlon		men

The Women's 4 × 400 metres relay competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom was held at the Olympic Stadium on 10–11 August.

In the final, the USA had individual 400m bronze medalist DeeDee Trotter lead off. From the gun she put distance on the rest of the field. While the display clock read 49.57 for her split, it was more like 50.3, handing the baton to Allyson Felix several meters ahead. With the miscalculation Felix ran close to a 48.1 split, reported as 48.85, then Francena McCorory (49.39) and individual gold medalist Sanya Richards-Ross (49.07) continued to extend the lead. It was almost 3 and a half seconds at the finish. Russia was clearly second ahead of Jamaica and Ukraine, those teams remaining in the same positions from the first handoff.

The three medaling countries finished in identical places in 2004, 2008 and 2012.

Records

Prior to the competition, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows. Sanya Richards (Ross) for the USA and Novlene Williams (Mills) for Jamaica have been on all three teams.

World record	Soviet Union (Tatyana Ledovskaya, Olga Nazarova, Mariya Pinigina, Olga Bryzgina)	3:15.17	Seoul, South Korea	1 October 1988
Olympic record
2012 World leading	United States Red (Francena McCorory, Allyson Felix, Natasha Hastings, Sanya Richards-Ross)	3:21.18	Philadelphia, United States	28 April 2012
Broken records during the 2012 Summer Olympics
2012 World leading	United States (DeeDee Trotter, Allyson Felix, Francena McCorory, Sanya Richards-Ross)	3:16.87	London, United Kingdom	11 August 2012

Schedule

All times are British Summer Time (UTC+1)

Date	Time	Round
Friday, 10 August 2012	19:10	Round 1
Saturday, 11 August 2012	20:25	Finals

• Q denotes automatic qualification (based on place).
• q denotes provisional qualification (fastest non-automatic qualifiers).
• DNS denotes did not start.
• DNF denotes did not finish.
• DQ denotes disqualified
• AR denotes area record.
• NR denotes national record.
• PB denotes personal best.
• SB denotes season's best.

Results

Round 1

Qual. rule: first 3 of each heat (Q) plus the 2 fastest times (q) qualified.

Heat 1

Rank	Lane	Nation	Competitors	Time	Notes
1	2	Jamaica	Christine Day, Shereefa Lloyd, Shericka Williams, Rosemarie Whyte	3:25.13	Q, SB
2	3	Ukraine	Olha Zemlyak, Alina Lohvynenko, Hanna Yaroshchuk, Nataliya Pyhyda	3:25.90	Q
3	6	France	Phara Anacharsis, Muriel Hurtis, Marie Gayot, Floria Guei	3:25.94	Q
4	8	Nigeria	Omolara Omotosho, Idara Otu, Bukola Abogunloko, Regina George	3:26.29	q, SB
5	4	Belarus	Alena Kiyevich, Iryna Khliustava, Ilona Usovich, Sviatlana Usovich	3:26.52	SB
6	5	Cuba	Aymée Martínez, Diosmely Peña, Yaimeisi Borlot, Daysiurami Bonne	3:27.41	SB
7	9	Italy	Chiara Bazzoni, Elena Maria Bonfanti, Libania Grenot, Maria Enrica Spacca	3:29.01	SB
8	7	Germany	Esther Cremer, Janin Lindenberg, Maral Feizbakhsh, Fabienne Kohlmann	3:31.06

Heat 2

Rank	Lane	Nation	Competitors	Time	Notes
1	9	United States	Keshia Baker, Francena McCorory, Diamond Dixon, DeeDee Trotter	3:22.09	Q
2	4	Russia	Yuliya Gushchina, Tatyana Firova, Natalya Nazarova, Anastasiya Kapachinskaya	3:23.11	Q, SB
3	8	Great Britain	Shana Cox, Lee McConnell, Eilidh Child, Christine Ohuruogu	3:25.05	Q
4	6	Czech Republic	Denisa Rosolová, Zuzana Bergrová, Jitka Bartoničková, Zuzana Hejnová	3:26.20	q
5	7	Poland	Iga Baumgart, Justyna Święty, Anna Jesień, Patrycja Wyciszkiewicz	3:30.15
6	2	Ireland	Marian Heffernan, Joanne Cuddihy, Jessie Barr, Michelle Carey	3:30.55	SB
7	5	Brazil	Joelma Sousa, Jailma de Lima, Aline dos Santos, Geisa Coutinho	3:32.95
8	3	Turkey	Pınar Saka, Meliz Redif, Birsen Engin, Sema Apak	3:34.71

Final

Rank	Lane	Nation	Competitors	Time	Notes
	7	United States	DeeDee Trotter, Allyson Felix, Francena McCorory, Sanya Richards-Ross	3:16.87	WL, SB
	5	Russia	Yulia Gushchina, Antonina Krivoshapka, Tatyana Firova, Natalya Antyukh	3:20.23	SB
	6	Jamaica	Christine Day, Rosemarie Whyte, Shericka Williams, Novlene Williams-Mills	3:20.95	SB
4	4	Ukraine	Alina Lohvynenko, Olha Zemlyak, Hanna Yaroshchuk, Nataliya Pyhyda	3:23.57	SB
5	9	Great Britain	Shana Cox, Lee McConnell, Perri Shakes-Drayton, Christine Ohuruogu	3:24.76	SB
6	8	France	Phara Anacharsis, Muriel Hurtis, Marie Gayot, Floria Guei	3:25.92
7	2	Czech Republic	Denisa Rosolova, Zuzana Bergrová, Jitka Bartoničková, Zuzana Hejnova	3:27.77
N/A	3	Nigeria	Omolara Omotosho, Muizat Ajoke Odumosu, Regina George, Bukola Abogunloko	DQ	R 163.3a

• Nigeria originally finished in seventh place in the final but were disqualified due to a lane infringement.