The surprises continued at the World Athletics Championships on Saturday night, with Great Britain and Northern Ireland taking the gold medal in the Men’s 4x100-meters relay and becoming the third-fastest nation in history, though there was an unfortunate end for Usain Bolt who pulled up injured on the final leg for Jamaica.
The favorites heading into the final were America, though the British quartet of CJ Ujah, Danny Talbot, Adam Gemili, and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake recorded one of the sensational relay performances of all time to take the title in front of their home crowd in a time of 37.47 seconds The American team of Michael Rogers, Justin Gatlin, Jaylen Bacon, and Christian Coleman took the silver medal in the end with a time of 37.52, with Japan taking the bronze medal in a time 38.04 seconds.
The Chinese quartet finished in fourth, with France in fifth and Canada in sixth. The Turkish team finished in seventh place, with the Jamaican team failing to finish after Bolt sadly pulled up in the final straight, after Omar McLeod, Julian Forte, and Yohan Blake had put the nation in contention for a medal.
GB pulls off the upset as Bolt’s career ends in sad circumstances
Though Bolt’s exit may slightly overshadow the final result, there was no doubt that the British quartet put in a storming performance to upset the American team and win only the home nation’s second gold medal of the event.
It was Ujah who got off to the best start of anyone in the field, ahead of the likes of Rogers and McLeod, and a strong change over to Gemili saw the home nation comfortably in front. It was expected that Gatlin would make up ground on the British team, though Gemili pulled away and another strong hand over to Talbot saw the British team in front.
Talbot’s leg was strong, though both Bacon and Blake made up some ground in the third leg, and it seemed that we could get an exciting final 100m in the last final of the evening. Bolt and Coleman both started chasing Mitchell-Blake, though the Jamaican quickly pulled up, allowing the Japanese team anchored by Kenji Fujimitsu to take third place, though Coleman could not do enough to chase down the Brit, who secured a historic triumph for his nation.