2019 World Athletics Championships – Men's 4 × 400 metres relay
# 2019 World Athletics Championships – Men's 4 × 400 metres relay

The men's 4 × 400 metres relay at the 2019 World Athletics Championships was held at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha, Qatar, from 5 to 6 October 2019.

## Summary

Colombia set a new national record in the qualifying round.

In the final event of these championships, USA was able to cast three fresh athletes into the final, with the only holdover Wilbert London. They led off with their bronze medalist Fred Kerley, but the early leader was Jamaica's Akeem Bloomfield, with Belgium's Jonathan Sacoor also in the mix. Down the home stretch, Kerley pulled back ground as Bloomfield slowed, by the handoff, USA had a step on Jamaica. Michael Cherry expanded USA's advantage over Jamaica's Nathon Allen through the turn to take 3 metres at the break. Behind him, Colombia's Diego Palomeque also ran a strong turn to pip Belgium's Robin Vanderbemden for third place. Through the final turn, Allen pulled in a metre on Cherry. While losing ground to the leaders, Trinidad and Tobago's Jereem Richards brought them into a 3-way battle for bronze. Onto the home stretch, Allen started losing ground to Cherry, sliding back toward the battle. With five metres, Cherry handed off to London, wearing a white sweatband on his head. In early strategy sessions, USA probably planned on their new superstar who wears a similar sweatband, Michael Norman, anchoring, but had to rearrange after Norman shut it down during his 400 semi-final. Jamaica's Terry Thomas took off after London, gaining strongly on the backstretch to shadow London through the final turn. Thomas set himself up to pounce coming off the turn, instead London slowly began widening the gap, getting the lead back to 4 metres before he named off to Norman's training partner, hurdler Rai Benjamin. Behind London and Thomas, Belgium's Dylan Borlée put an early gap on Colombia's Jhon Solís and was now free by 3 metres at the handoff to his brother Kevin Borlée. Benjamin slowly expanded his lead on Jamaica's Demish Gaye, by the finish it was 11 metres. Another 12 metres behind Jamaica, Borlée was able to hold off Colombia's new find, silver medalist Anthony Zambrano for bronze.

USA's 2:56.69 was the fastest relay in 11 years, number 11 on the all time list. 8 of the 10 times ahead of them are also USA teams. Colombia set a new national record again in the final, a second and a half improvement, going under 3 minutes for the first time and moving their country into #15 on the all time list.

## Records

Before the competition records were as follows:

| Record | Perf. | Team | Date | Location |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| World | 2:54.29 | United States Andrew Valmon, Quincy Watts, Butch Reynolds, Michael Duane Johnson | 22 Aug 1993 | Stuttgart, Germany |
| Championship | 2:54.29 | United States Andrew Valmon, Quincy Watts, Butch Reynolds, Michael Duane Johnson | 22 Aug 1993 | Stuttgart, Germany |
| World leading | 2:59.05 | Texas A&M University Bryce Deadmon, Robert Grant, Kyree Johnson, Devin Dixon | 7 Jun 2019 | Austin, United States |
| African | 2:58.68 | Nigeria Clement Chukwu, Jude Monye, Sunday Bada, Enefiok Udo-Obong | 30 Sep 2000 | Sydney, Australia |
| Asian | 3:00.56 | Qatar Abderrahman Samba, Mohamed Nasir Abbas, Mohamed El Nour, Abdalelah Haroun | 30 Aug 2018 | Jakarta, Indonesia |
| NACAC | 2:54.29 | United States Andrew Valmon, Quincy Watts, Harry Reynolds, Michael Johnson | 22 Aug 1993 | Stuttgart, Germany |
| South American | 2:58.56 | Brazil Eronilde de Araújo, Cleverson da Silva, Claudinei da Silva, Sanderlei Parrela | 30 Jul 1999 | Winnipeg, Canada |
| European | 2:56.60 | Great Britain Jamie Baulch, Iwan Thomas, Mark Richardson, Roger Black | 3 Aug 1996 | Atlanta, United States |
| Oceanian | 2:59.70 | Australia Bruce Frayne, Gary Minihan, Rick Mitchell, Darren Clark | 11 Aug 1984 | Los Angeles, United States |

The following records were matched or set at the competition:

| Record | Perf. | Team | Date |
| - | - | - | - |
| Colombian | 3:01.06 | Colombia Jhon Perlaza, Diego Palomeque, Jhon Solís, Anthony Zambrano | 5 Oct 2019 |
| World leading | 2:56.69 | United States Fred Kerley, Michael Cherry, Wilbert London, Rai Benjamin | 6 Oct 2019 |
| Colombian | 2:59.50 | Colombia Jhon Perlaza, Diego Palomeque, Jhon Solís, Anthony Zambrano | 6 Oct 2019 |

## Schedule

The event schedule, in local time (UTC+3), was as follows:

| Date | Time | Round |
| - | - | - |
| 5 October | 20:25 | Heats |
| 6 October | 21:30 | Final |

## Results

### Heats

The first three in each heat (Q) and the next two fastest (q) qualified for the final.

| Rank | Heat | Lane | Nation | Athletes | Time | Notes |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | 1 | 4 | United States (USA) | Tyrell Richard, Vernon Norwood, Wilbert London, Nathan Strother | 2:59.89 | Q |
| 2 | 2 | 5 | Jamaica (JAM) | Akeem Bloomfield, Nathon Allen, Terry Thomas, Javon Francis | 3:00.76 | Q, SB |
| 3 | 2 | 6 | Belgium (BEL) | Dylan Borlée, Julien Watrin, Jonathan Sacoor, Kevin Borlée | 3:00.87 | Q, SB |
| 4 | 1 | 9 | Colombia (COL) | Jhon Perlaza, Diego Palomeque, Jhon Solís, Anthony Zambrano | 3:01.06 | Q, NR |
| 5 | 2 | 8 | Trinidad and Tobago (TTO) | Asa Guevara, Jereem Richards, Darren Alfred, Deon Lendore | 3:01.35 | Q |
| 6 | 2 | 7 | France (FRA) | Ludvy Vaillant, Christopher Naliali, Thomas Jordier, Mame-Ibra Anne | 3:01.40 | q, SB |
| 7 | 1 | 8 | Italy (ITA) | Edoardo Scotti, Vladimir Aceti, Matteo Galvan, Davide Re | 3:01.60 | Q, SB |
| 8 | 1 | 6 | Great Britain & N.I. (GBR) | Cameron Chalmers, Rabah Yousif, Lee Thompson, Martyn Rooney | 3:01.96 | q, SB |
| 9 | 1 | 7 | Japan (JPN) | Julian Walsh, Shōta Iizuka, Kentaro Sato, Kota Wakabayashi | 3:02.05 | SB |
| 10 | 2 | 3 | South Africa (RSA) | Thapelo Phora, Gardeo Isaacs, Ranti Dikgale, Derrick Mokaleng | 3:02.06 | SB |
| 11 | 2 | 9 | Czech Republic (CZE) | Jan Tesař, Michal Desenský, Patrik Šorm, Vít Müller | 3:02.97 | SB |
| 12 | 2 | 4 | India (IND) | Amoj Jacob, Muhammed Anas, Jeevan Karekoppa Suresh, Noah Nirmal Tom | 3:03.09 | |
| 13 | 1 | 3 | Spain (ESP) | Óscar Husillos, Samuel García, Julio Arenas, Darwin Echeverry | 3:04.27 | SB |
| 14 | 1 | 2 | Australia (AUS) | Steven Solomon, Alex Beck, Murray Goodwin, Ian Halpin | 3:05.49 | |
| 15 | 2 | 2 | Qatar (QAT) | Bassem Hemeida, Abubaker Haydar Abdalla, Ashraf Hussein Osman, Mohamed Nasir Abbas | 3:06.25 | |
| | 1 | 5 | Botswana (BOT) | Zibane Ngozi, Ditiro Nzamani, Onkabetse Nkobolo, Leungo Scotch | DQ | 170.19 |

### Final

The final was started on 6 October at 21:36.

| Rank | Lane | Nation | Athletes | Time | Notes |
| - | - | - | - | - | - |
| | 4 | United States (USA) | Fred Kerley, Michael Cherry, Wilbert London, Rai Benjamin | 2:56.69 | WL |
| | 5 | Jamaica (JAM) | Akeem Bloomfield, Nathon Allen, Terry Thomas, Demish Gaye | 2:57.90 | SB |
| | 7 | Belgium (BEL) | Jonathan Sacoor, Robin Vanderbemden, Dylan Borlée, Kevin Borlée | 2:58.78 | SB |
| 4 | 6 | Colombia (COL) | Jhon Perlaza, Diego Palomeque, Jhon Solís, Anthony Zambrano | 2:59.50 | NR |
| 5 | 9 | Trinidad and Tobago (TTO) | Asa Guevara, Jereem Richards, Deon Lendore, Machel Cedenio | 3:00.74 | SB |
| 6 | 8 | Italy (ITA) | Davide Re, Vladimir Aceti, Matteo Galvan, Edoardo Scotti | 3:02.78 | |
| 7 | 3 | France (FRA) | Ludvy Vaillant, Christopher Naliali, Thomas Jordier, Mame-Ibra Anne | 3:03.06 | |
| | 2 | Great Britain & N.I. (GBR) | Cameron Chalmers, Toby Harries, Rabah Yousif, Lee Thompson | DNF | DNF |
