The 4 x 200 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 200 metres or half a lap on a standard 400 meter track. The event is a world record eligible event, but is not a standard event at most track meets, though certain leagues regularly conduct this event as part of their regular program. The men's world record is 1:18.68, currently held by the Santa Monica Track Club

Santa Monica Track Club

The Santa Monica Track Club was formed in 1972 by Joe Douglas as a post-collegiate track club. By the 1980s, the team came to be a major player in worldwide Track and Field competition, with team members setting numerous World and National records...

 of Michael Marsh, Leroy Burrell

Leroy Burrell

Leroy Russel Burrell is a former American athlete who twice set the world record for the 100 meters sprint, setting a time of 9.90 seconds in June 1991. This was broken by Carl Lewis in September at the World Track and Field Championships. In that race, Burrell came in second, yet he...

, Floyd Heard

Floyd Heard

Floyd Wayne Heard is a retired track and field sprinter from the United States, best known for setting the 1986 world's best year performance in the men's 200 metres. He did so on 1986-07-07 at a meet in Moscow, Soviet Union, clocking 20.12...

 and Carl Lewis

Carl Lewis

Frederick Carlton "Carl" Lewis is an American former track and field athlete, who won 10 Olympic medals including 9 gold, and 10 World Championships medals, of which 8 were gold. His career spanned from 1979 when he first achieved a world ranking to 1996 when he last won an Olympic title and...

 set April 17, 1994 at the Mt. SAC Relays

Mt. SAC Relays

The Mt. SAC Relays are an annual track and field festival held primarily at Hilmer Lodge Stadium on the Mt. San Antonio College campus in Walnut, California. The relays, held in April each year, were started by then track coach Hilmer Lodge in 1959. The meet attracts all levels and disciplines of...

 in Walnut, California

Walnut, California

Walnut is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 29,172 at the 2010 census and its current mayor is Tom King, a former Detective from the Los Angeles Police Department....

. The women's world record is 1:27.46, set by a squad called Team USA "Blue" LaTasha Jenkins

LaTasha Jenkins

LaTasha Jenkins is a former American sprinter. Having won international medals in the 200 m, she won a silver medal at the 2001 World Indoor Championships and a silver medal at the 2001 Outdoor Championships. Other career highlights include 2001 U.S...

, LaTasha Colander-Richardson, Nanceen Perry

Nanceen Perry

Nanceen Perry is a former sprinter from the United States.She competed in the 4x100 meters relay in Sydney 2000, but her bronze medal was stripped after confessions of steroid doping by teammate Marion Jones.-External links:...

, and Marion Jones

Marion Jones

Marion Lois Jones , also known as Marion Jones-Thompson, is a former world champion track and field athlete, and a former professional basketball player for Tulsa Shock in the WNBA...

 on April 29, 2000 at the Penn Relays

Penn Relays

The Penn Relays is the oldest and largest track and field competition in the United States, hosted annually since April 21, 1895 by the University of Pennsylvania at Franklin Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania...

 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...

.

There are multiple formats under which the race can be conducted. If the track is marked for a four-turn stagger format, the runners can stay in their lanes throughout the race. In such a situation, the outer lanes could appear to start 2/3 of the way through the first turn. The markings for such a special zone should be colored red, though many tracks deviate from the standard marking colors. On a conventionally marked track, the race can be run starting at the normal 400 metres (and 4x100 metres relay) start line. As a two-turn stagger, the first exchange would take place in the standard second passing zone of the 4x100 metres relay, the second pass taking place in the normal (lane one) 4x400 metres relay zone. After that exchange, the runner would break into lane one and make a third exchange in lane one of the second standard 4x100 metres relay zone.

Indoors, the event is popular because each leg is one leg of a standard 200 metre indoor track.