How could you run the fastest 400m "relay"?

[Mellow Johnny]

Okay, assuming you could use as many or as few current athletes as possible and whatever distances but needing to follow other regular relay rules (no tossing the baton, etc.), what would result in the fastest 400 meters possible by humans?

Seems like the fewer exchanges the better while maximizing each person's speed.

Bolt with a 200 then a healthy Gay and Powell each a 100?

Could you put together a team that could run 36 or even under?

[Dave]

or Bolt and Gay and be done with it. One pass, two accelerations.

[imaginative]

Nope. Take Bolt+Johnson: 19.32 + 19.30 = 38.62. The WR is 37.10. Could a
flying start on one of the two give 1.52 seconds? Very unlikely. (Gay would
do even worse, obviously.) A three-man relay could conceivably beat a
four-man, possibly Bolt/Asafa/Gay in some order, but a two-man relay is just
silly.

In all cases the distances should be roughly equal, not 200/100/100. Even a
combination like 160/120/120 would be stretching it.

Also note that an optimal four-man relay would go noticeably below 37.

[bijanc]

Fastest 400

...by running Bolt to Powell to MJ to The King.

For the ladies, run Evelyn to the `88 Florence to Torrence to VCB.

[Powell]

Re: How could you run the fastest 400m "relay"?

Okay, assuming you could use as many or as few current athletes as possible and whatever distances but needing to follow other regular relay rules (no tossing the baton, etc.), what would result in the fastest 400 meters possible by humans?

Taking four world-class (not necessarily Bolt fast) guys and actually practicing handovers every day for a year.

[Mellow Johnny]

Nope. Take Bolt+Johnson: 19.32 + 19.30 = 38.62. The WR is 37.10. Could a
flying start on one of the two give 1.52 seconds? Very unlikely. (Gay would
do even worse, obviously.) A three-man relay could conceivably beat a
four-man, possibly Bolt/Asafa/Gay in some order, but a two-man relay is just
silly.

In all cases the distances should be roughly equal, not 200/100/100. Even a
combination like 160/120/120 would be stretching it.

Also note that an optimal four-man relay would go noticeably below 37.

Not sure how fast MJ could run right now being that it's using current athletes...

[eldrick]

from here

http://mb.trackandfieldnews.com/discuss ... 731#490731

4 guys of 10.2 -> 38.1 - 38.2
4 guys of 10.1 -> 37.7 - 37.8
4 guys of 10.0 -> 37.3 - 37.4
4 guys of 9.90 -> 36.9 - 37.0

bolt is 9.6 & safa 9.7 & other 2 jamas are ~ 10.0, so their team has potential of

~ 36.6 - 36.7

[paulthefan]

The key of course would be to open up the fly-zones and add more legs. Since each dasher roughly maintains top speed for about 50m (40m to 90m) you should have a 30 or 40m fly zone and about 10 sprinters. The baton should be able to get around for a WR once the a10 athletes have been trained together (based on empirical evidence)..... for.. oh... about 20 years

[lapsus]

The key of course would be to open up the fly-zones and add more legs. Since each dasher roughly maintains top speed for about 50m (40m to 90m) you should have a 30 or 40m fly zone and about 10 sprinters. The baton should be able to get around for a WR once the a10 athletes have been trained together (based on empirical evidence)..... for.. oh... about 20 years

So if the first leg would be Bolt to 90 meters in, say, 8.79, then baton maintains speed of about 0.83 seconds / 10 meters for 310 meters
-> 34,52 WR