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.[1]

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

References

  1. "Athletics at the 1968 Mexico City Summer Games: Men's 4 × 100 metres Relay". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 15 August 2017.
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