Tokyo 2020: Team GB win silver and bronze in 4x100m relay
Team GB have won a silver and bronze medal in the 4x100m relays at the Tokyo Olympics.
Dina Asher-Smith led the women's 4x100m relay team to a bronze medal on Friday.
While GB's men took silver after being beaten on the line by Italy by 0.01 seconds.
The women's team, consisting of world 200m champion Asher-Smith, Asha Philip, Imani-Lara Lansiquot and Daryll Neita, clocked 41.88 seconds at the Olympic Stadium behind Jamaica and the USA.More was expected of the squad and some argue their baton changes let them down.
For Asher-Smith, it was a comeback after her individual Olympic dreams were wrecked by a hamstring injury she suffered at the British trials in June.
She failed to reach the 100m final after running a time of 11.05secs – well below her 10.83s personal best – and then pulled out of the 200m. The 25-year-old returned on Thursday to help the squad reach the final, qualifying fastest in a new national record of 41.55s.
The British men’s 4x100m team won a silver medal after being beaten on the line by Italy.
CJ Ujah, Zharnel Hughes, Richard Kilty and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake ran 37.51 seconds to be beaten to gold by 0.01 seconds.
It completed a remarkable summer for Italy after they won Euro 2020 and saw Marcell Jacobs take 100m gold in the Olympic Stadium on Sunday but Kilty sent out a warning ahead of next year’s World Championships in Eugene.
He said: "In the history of mankind this is Italy’s biggest year ever. Forget the Roman Empire, Nero, all that nonsense. This is as big as it gets for them.
"They better soak it in because they have conquered the world this year.
"What more can we say, we lost by a hundredth but God was looking over Italy. I don’t know where they dragged that from. We’re better than them and we’ll beat them next year."
He added: "When I was 10 and if someone said you will win an Olympic silver in Tokyo, I would have snatched your hand off. When I am 50 and fat and looking back on my career I will say that is one of the best nights of my life."
It was also bittersweet for Hughes after he was disqualified from the 100m final for a false start after cramping up in his blocks.
He said: "Tonight is a night where it’s special for me and the team, what happened in the past is in the past. I needed to gather myself and I did that.
"I came out here composed, relaxed and trusted the guys. I’m just happy to be walking away from this Olympics with a medal around my neck."
Silver and Bronze medals were added to Team GB’s athletics medal total after Laura Muir won silver in the 1500m earlier on Friday night.
Holly Bradshaw took bronze in the pole vault and Keely Hodgkinson claimed an 800m silver in the week.