2017 World Championships in Athletics – Women's 4 × 100 metres relay explained

Event:	Women's 4 × 100 metres relay
Competition:	2017 World Championships
Venue:	Olympic Stadium
Dates:	12 August (heats & final)
Competitors:	63
Nations:	15
Win Value:	41.82
Gold:	Aaliyah Brown Allyson Felix Morolake Akinosun Tori Bowie
Goldnoc:	USA
Silver:	Asha Philip Desirèe Henry Dina Asher-Smith Daryll Neita
Silvernoc:	GBR
Bronze:	Jura Levy Natasha Morrison Simone Facey Sashalee Forbes
Bronzenoc:	JAM
Prev:	2015
Next:	2019

The women's 4 × 100 metres relay at the 2017 World Championships in Athletics was held at the London Olympic Stadium on 12 August.^[1]

Summary

USA with Aaliyah Brown and the home British team with Asha Philip were out fast, gaining slightly on Tatjana Pinto for Germany to their outside, while outside of Germany, Jura Levy had Jamaica pulling away. USA and Jamaica had smooth handoffs to Allyson Felix and Natasha Morrison respectively, but the British team had a hesitation on the handoff to Desirèe Henry, losing a slight amount of time. On the backstretch, Henry passed Germany's Lisa Mayer. Felix made a comfortable hand off to Morolake Akinosun slightly ahead of Jamaica's handoff to Simone Facey, GBR handing off to Dina Asher-Smith two steps later. Through the final turn, Germany's Gina Lückenkemper made up a lot of ground as the field tightened. At the final handoff Jamaica's Sashalee Forbes took a quick glance back, USA's Tori Bowie took a more serious look to make sure she got the baton, effectively in handoff style, while Germany to Rebekka Haase and the British to Daryll Neita used the more conventional blind handoffs to pull closer. Onto the straightaway, Bowie had a half metre lead over Forbes and Neita, who were virtually even. Neita looked to stay with Bowie for the first half of the straightaway, separating from Jamaica before Bowie put in some clear separation for the USA win. As Neita tightened, Forbes started to close but not enough for Jamaica to take the silver away from the British.

Records

Before the competition records were as follows:^[2]

Record		Team	Date	Location
World	40.82	United States Tianna Madison, Allyson Felix, Bianca Knight, Carmelita Jeter	10 Aug 2012	London, United Kingdom
Championship	41.07	Jamaica Veronica Campbell-Brown, Natasha Morrison, Elaine Thompson, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce		Beijing, China
World leading	42.12	University of Oregon Makenzie Dunmore, Deajah Stevens, Hannah Cunliffe, Ariana Washington	15 Apr 2017	Torrance, United States
		Louisiana State University Mikiah Brisco, Kortnei Johnson, Jada Martin, Aleia Hobbs	29 Apr 2017	Baton Rouge, United States
African	42.39	Nigeria Beatrice Utondu, Faith Idehen, Christy Opara-Thompson, Mary Onyali-Omagbemi	7 Aug 1992	Barcelona, Spain
Asian	42.23	China Xiao Lin, Li Yali, Liu Xiaomei, Li Xuemei	23 Oct 1997	Shanghai, China
NACAC	40.82	United States Tianna Madison, Allyson Felix, Bianca Knight, Carmelita Jeter	10 Aug 2012	London, United Kingdom
South American	42.29	Brazil Evelyn dos Santos, Ana Cláudia Lemos, Franciela Krasucki, Rosângela Santos	18 Aug 2013	Moscow, Russia
European	41.37	Silke Gladisch-Möller, Sabine Rieger, Ingrid Auerswald-Lange, Marlies Göhr	6 Oct 1985	Canberra, Australia
Oceanian	42.99	Australia Rachael Massey, Suzanne Broadrick, Jodi Lambert, Melinda Gainsford-Taylor	18 Mar 2000	Pietersburg, South Africa

The following records were set at the competition:^[3]

Record		Team	Date
World leading	41.84	United States Aaliyah Brown, Allyson Felix, Morolake Akinosun, Ariana Washington	12 Apr 2017
	41.82
Swiss	42.50	Switzerland Ajla Del Ponte, Sarah Atcho, Mujinga Kambundji, Salomé Kora

Qualification criteria

The first eight placed teams at the 2017 IAAF World Relays and the host country qualify automatically for entry with remaining places being filled by teams with the fastest performances during the qualification period.^[4]

Schedule

The event schedule, in local time (UTC+1), is as follows:^[5]

Date	Time	Round
12 August	10:35	Heats
12 August	21:30	Final

Results

Heats

The first round took place on 12 August in two heats as follows:^[6]

Heat	1	2
Start time	10:35	10:44
Photo finish	link	link

The first three in each heat ( 

Q ) and the next two fastest ( q ) qualified for the final. The overall results were as follows:^[7]

Rank	Heat	Lane	Nation	Athletes	Time	Notes
1	1	4			41.84	,
2	1	5			41.93	,
3	2	6		Tatjana Pinto, Lisa Mayer, Gina Lückenkemper, Rebekka Haase	42.34
4	1	9			42.50	,
5	2	5		Christania Williams, Natasha Morrison, Jura Levy, Sashalee Forbes	42.50
6	1	8		Madiea Ghafoor, Dafne Schippers, Naomi Sedney, Jamile Samuel	42.64	,
7	2	9			42.77	,
8	2	2		Kelly-Ann Baptiste, Michelle-Lee Ahye, Semoy Hackett, Khalifa St. Fort	42.91	,
9	1	7			42.92
10	1	6			43.68
11	2	4		Alina Kalistratova, Yelyzaveta Bryzhina, Yana Kachur, Hanna Plotitsyna	43.77
12	1	3			43.94
13	2	8			45.47
	2	3		Devynne Charlton, Carmiesha Cox, Jenae Ambrose, Tynia Gaither
	2	7
	1	2

Final

The final took place on 12 August at 20:05. The results were as follows (photo finish):^[8]

Rank	Lane	Nation	Athletes	Time	Notes
	4			41.82
	5			42.12
	7		Jura Levy, Natasha Morrison, Simone Facey, Sashalee Forbes	42.19
4	6		Tatjana Pinto, Lisa Mayer, Gina Lückenkemper, Rebekka Haase	42.36
5	9			42.51
6	3			42.62
7	8			42.63
8	2		Tessa van Schagen, Dafne Schippers, Naomi Sedney, Jamile Samuel	43.07

Notes and References

1. https://media.aws.iaaf.org/competitiondocuments/pdf/5151/AT-4X1-W-h----.SL2.pdf Start list
2. Web site: 4x100 Metres Relay Women – Records . IAAF. 31 July 2017.
3. Web site: Records Set - Final. IAAF. 14 August 2017.
4. Web site: Qualification System and Entry Standards. IAAF. 9 August 2017.
5. Web site: 4x100 Metres Relay Women − Timetable. IAAF. 9 August 2017.
6. Web site: 4x100 Metres Relay Women − Heats − Results. IAAF. 13 August 2017.
7. Web site: 4x100 Metres Relay Women − Heats − Summary. IAAF. 13 August 2017.
8. Web site: 4x100 Metres Relay Women − Final− Results. IAAF. 13 August 2017.