4X400m.Final (USA-WR)1968 Olympic Games , Mexico City .

[ronpaulforpresident6]

That was one sick 2nd leg run by Freeman and what a baton hand-off!

[hoyadestroya85]

Jeez. Larry James was such a smooth relay runner. First man to ever run a sub 44 second 440 yard relay leg at the 1968 Penn Relays.

[hoyadestroya85]

I'm glad Daniel Rudisha passed on his good genes.

[tknaplund]

Great video! A historical performance of a talented US team. IAAF "official" splits; Vince Matthews 45.0 - Ron Freeman 43.2 - Larry James 43.8 - Lee Evans 44.1. Freeman's amazing split was the fastest 400 relay leg until Quincy Watts was timed in 43.1 at the '92 Barcelona Games. The "record" stands at 42.91 by Michael Johnson from WCh 4x4 at Stuttgart '93. In Mexico Charles Asati ran a 44.6 first leg, and Daniel Rudisha a 44.4 last leg. Imagine Tommie Smith running the first leg for the USA.

[Blactor]

@tknaplund Thanks for the info--Freeman ran a RIDICULOUS leg, I was wondering what that split was

[akuraom]

Daniel Rudisha (David's father) was a member of this silver medal winning team!

[beebeechitown]

Btw folks, Evans was an all-time great, but 440 yard world record holder Tommie Smith beat him regularly back then.

[lease2coach1]

@beebeechitown "Regularly"? Bud Winter deliberately kept the two men apart most of the time.

Aside from Tommie's 440WR (and win over Lee), what other races between the two do you have on record?

[beebeechitown]

The second leg(Ron Freeman) absolutely smoked his finish! His pass to third leg Larry James was like a 4x100 baton exchange.

Extraordinary race and time...especially considering that it was 1968 and the great Tommie Smith wasn't in the race.

[htownhomie06]

Heard about this race but never got to see it. That Olympic competition was so monumental for so many reasons. To think that so many of these sprint marks lasted 10, 15 and 25 yrs. Hands down the '68 team was America's greatest men's track team of all-time.

[dragon60100]

sisi

[lulugemini]

Congrats to Lee Evans and the rest of the US Team. I went to high school with Lee, his younger sister, Rosemary and brothers, Dayton and Donald. Great people!

[ollie705]

First time I'd seen it. Thanks.

[Shrubb1879]

Pity there was no women's 4x400m at these Olympics - GB would probably have won it.

[phastman1994]

Sick upload, do u have footage of Evans' 43.86 WR he set here?

[ARRISIPPY]

@phastman1994 Yeah,I think I do,tho' I'm sure I already saw it on here somewhere (?). If not I'll dig it out and shove it on sometime. 

[phastman1994]

@ARRISIPPY Yeah Theres actually footage of the second half of the race here on youtube in the video "athletics world records of yesteryear" but if you got footage of the whole race that would be great! It's cool if u don't though.

[ARRISIPPY]

@phastman1994 Found it...shoved it on...enjoy!! Steve

[phastman1994]

@ARRISIPPY thanks a lot man!

[dal4018]

@ARRISIPPY Yes footage of the 68 400 final is here hey do you have footage of the men's 4x1 relay final?? A friend told me that Jim Hines pulled a Bob Hayes catching somebody from behind for the USA to win.

[ARRISIPPY]

@dal4018 Can't help you with that one! I don't think I've ever even seen it.Hopefully out there somewhere......

[dal4018]

@ARRISIPPY Okay thanks for trying.Why was Lee Evans and Tommie Smith kept apart?