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Canada were crowned the Olympics 4x100m relay champions as Team USA missed out on the podium after a poor baton exchange with South Africa bagging a silver medal.
Canada took advantage of Team USA’s poor baton exchange to claim Olympics gold in the 4x100m relay on Friday night.
With the US team of Christian Coleman, Kenny Bednarek, Kyree King and Fred Kerley, many in the stadium thought they would coast to a gold medal but it ended in tears.
Coleman started well but it was his changeover with Bednarek that was dramatic. He failed to hand over the baton seamlessly, ending up stopping and the wasted seconds proved costly.
That incident did not just see the Americans lose a medal but they would later be disqualified.
Canada took advantage with Andre De Grasse anchoring them to victory in a time of 37.50 seconds, a season’s best, after Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake and Brandon Rodney had done the job in the first three legs.
South Africa claimed an impressive silver medal after Akani Simbine anchored them to second place in 37.57, an area record, as Great Britain, anchored by Zharnel Hughes, clocked a season’s best 37.61 for a bronze medal.
It was a disastrous outing for the Americans who had a team of experienced runners given Coleman is a former world 100m champion while Bednarek has won back-to-back Olympics silver medals.
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