The 4 x 800 metres relay is an athletics track event

Track and field

Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...

 in which teams comprise four runners who each complete 800 metres or 2 laps on a standard 400 meter track.

The event is often exciting because a psychological advantage for a chasing runner means that the race lead can change hands frequently. As runners have a rolling start, split times cannot be compared to individual 800 m performances.

While not a World Championship or Olympic event, the IAAF does ratify world records

World records in athletics

World records in the sport of athletics are ratified by the International Association of Athletics Federations. Athletics records comprise the best performances in the sports of track and field, road running and racewalking....

 in the event. The men's world record is 7:02.43 by a Kenya

Kenya

Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...

n team of
|Joseph Mutua

Joseph Mutua

Joseph Mutua is a Kenyan runner who specializes in the 800 metres.His personal best time is 1:43.33 minutes, achieved in August 2002 in Zürich. He holds the African indoor record in 800 m with 1:44.71 minutes, achieved in January 2004 in Stuttgart.He twice competed at the Summer Olympics...

, William Yiampoy

William Yiampoy

William Oloonkishu Yiampoy is a Kenyan runner who specializes in the 800 metres. His personal best is 1:42.91 minutes, achieved in September 2002 in Rieti....

, Ismael Kombich and Wilfred Bungei

Wilfred Bungei

Wilfred Kipkemboi Bungei is a Kenyan middle distance runner, who won the 800 m gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing...

, set August 25, 2006 at the Memorial Van Damme

Memorial Van Damme

Memorial van Damme is an annual athletics event at the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels, Belgium that takes place in late August or early September...

 meet in Brussels, Belgium. The women's world record is 7:50.17, set by a team representing the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

, |Nadezhda Olizarenko

Nadezhda Olizarenko

Nadezhda Fyodorovna Olizarenko is a retired athlete, who competed mainly in the 800 metres. She represented the Soviet Union.Olizarenko competed for Soviet Union in the 1980 Summer Olympics held in Moscow, Russia in the 800 metres, where she won the gold medal ahead of country women Olga Mineyeva...

, Lyubov Gurina

Lyubov Gurina

Lyubov Gurina is a retired middle-distance runner who represented the USSR, the Unified Team, and later Russia. Competing mainly in the 800 metres, in 1994 she became the oldest European Champion at the age of 37...

, Lyudmila Borisova

Lyudmila Borisova

Lyudmila Borisova is a retired Russian runner who specialized in the 3000 metres.She holds the current world record in the rarely contested 4 x 800 metres relay .-Achievements:...

 and Irina Podyalovskaya

Irina Podyalovskaya

Irina Podyalovskaya is a retired female middle distance runner who represented the USSR in the 1970s and the early 1980s. She set her personal best in the women's 800 metres on 22 June 1984 at a meet in Kiev.-References:*...

 on August 15, 1984 in Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

.