The 4 × 100 metres relay or sprint relay is an athletics track event run in lanes over one lap of the track with four runners completing 100 metres each. The first runners begin in the same stagger as for the individual 400 m race. A relay baton is carried by each runner and must be passed within a 20 m changeover box (usually marked by yellow lines) which extends 10 m on either side of each 100 m mark of the race. Another line is marked 10 m further back, marking the earliest point at which the outgoing runner may begin (giving up to 10 m of acceleration before entering the passing zone).
Transferring of the baton in this race is typically blind. The outgoing runner reaches a straight arm backwards when they enter the changeover box, or when the incoming runner makes a verbal signal. The outgoing runner does not look backwards, and it is the responsibility of the incoming runner to thrust the baton into the outstretched hand, and not let go until the outgoing runner takes hold of it. Runners on the first and third legs typically run on the inside of the lane with the baton in their right hand, while runners on the second and fourth legs take the baton in their left. Polished handovers can compensate for a lack of basic speed to some extent, and disqualification for dropping the baton or failing to transfer it within the box is common, even at the highest level.
During a relay race, members of a team take turns running, orienteering, swimming, cross-country skiing, biathlon, or ice skating (usually with a baton in the first) parts of a circuit or performing a certain action. Relay races take the form of professional races and amateur games. In the Olympic games, there are several types of relay races that are part of track and field.
A swimming relay of four swimmers usually follows this strategy: second fastest, third fastest, slowest, then fastest (anchor). However, it is not uncommon to see either (1) the slowest swimmer racing in the second slot, creating an order as follows: second fastest, slowest, third fastest, and then fastest, or (2) an order from slowest to fastest: slowest, third fastest, second fastest, fastest.
The Honourable Usain St. Leo Bolt, OJ, C.D. ( /ˈjuːseɪn/; born 21 August 1986), is a Jamaican sprinter and a five-time World and three-time Olympic gold medalist. He is the world record and Olympic record holder in the 100 metres, the 200 metres and (along with his teammates) the 4×100 metres relay. He is the reigning Olympic champion in these three events, and is one of only seven athletes (along with Valerie Adams, Veronica Campbell-Brown, Jacques Freitag, Yelena Isinbayeva, Jana Pittman, Dani Samuels) to win world championships at the youth, junior, and senior level of an athletic event.
Bolt won a 200 m gold medal at the 2002 World Junior Championships, making him the competition's youngest-ever gold medalist at the time (since surpassed by Jacko Gill). In 2004, at the CARIFTA Games, he became the first junior sprinter to run the 200 m in less than 20 seconds with a time of 19.93 s, breaking the previous world junior record held by Roy Martin by two-tenths of a second. He turned professional in 2004, and although he competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics, he missed most of the next two seasons due to injuries. In 2007, he broke Don Quarrie's 200 m Jamaican record with a run of 19.75 s.
Allyson Michelle Felix (born November 18, 1985) is a track and field sprint athlete, who competes internationally for the United States, primarily in the 200 meters. She also competes at the 100 meters and the 400 meters distances. She is a two-time Olympic silver medalist at the 200 meters, as well as being the only woman ever to be a three-time Athletics World Championship gold medalist for that distance. She is also an Olympic gold medalist, winning gold at the Beijing 2008 Olympics as a member of the United States' Women's 4 x 400 meters team.
As a participant in the US Anti-Doping Agency's "Project Believe" program, Felix is regularly tested to ensure that her body is free of performance-enhancing drugs.
Felix, born and raised in Southern California, is a devout Christian and is the daughter of Paul, an ordained minister and professor of New Testament at The Master's Seminary in Sun Valley, California, and Marlean who is an elementary school teacher at Balboa Magnet Elementary. Her older brother, Wes Felix is also a sprinter, and was the Pac 10 200m champion in 2003 and 2004. Wes now acts as the agent for his sister. Felix sees her running ability as a gift from God, "My faith is the reason I run – it calms my heart and makes everything feel like a lift. My speed is definitely a gift from Him, and I run for His glory. Whatever I do, He allows me to do it."
Carmelita Jeter ( /ˈdʒɛtər/; born November 24, 1979) is an American sprinter who specializes in the 100 meters. She is the 2011 IAAF World Champion in the 100 metres.
She won the 100 m bronze at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics and a gold at the World Athletics Final. she won a second World Championship bronze. However, greater performances followed, winning her second gold of the World Athletics Final in 10.67 seconds and winning the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix in 10.64 seconds after that. This made her the second fastest woman ever in the 100 m, beating Marion Jones's best and bringing her closer to Florence Griffith-Joyner's long standing world record. Currently she holds three of the top ten times ever run.
Jeter attended Bishop Montgomery High School. Initially, basketball was the preferred sport in her family, and her younger brother, Eugene, later joined the Sacramento Kings. Her basketball coach suggested that she try out track, and a 11.7 second run confirmed her natural talent for sprinting. Jeter set the record for most NCAA medals by a California State University, Dominguez Hills track athlete and became the University's first U.S. Olympic Trials qualifier. A recurring hamstring problem kept her out of competition for much of 2003–05, and it was not until 2007 that she made her first impact in senior track and field athletics, having undergone treatment with deep tissue massage.