Hudson-Smith, Haydock-Wilson, Davey and Dobson win bronze and take down mark from 1996 Games as United States beat Botswana in a relay thriller
Brits smash On a hectic adrenaline-fuelled final evening of Olympic finals at the Stade de France, the crowd were treated to records galore. Plenty of these came in the men’s 4x400m relay as the United States set an Olympic record of 2:54.43 to take gold from Botswana’s African record of 2:54.53 as the Great Britain & Northern Ireland team set a European record of 2:55.83 in third.
Finally, the mark of 2:56.60 held by Iwan Thomas, Jamie Baulch, Mark Richardson and Roger Black set in Atlanta in 1996 has fallen.
The United States’ winning time, meanwhile, narrowly missed the long-standing world record of 2:54.29 set by the US team of Andrew Valmon, Quincy Watts, Butch Reynolds and Michael Johnson at the 1993 World Championships in Stuttgart.
USA beat Botswana with GB third (Getty)
With a British men’s 4x400m medal and a further bronze medal in the women’s 4x400m moments later, it was a great success for the Martyn Rooney-led 4x400m programme and means the GB squad ended the final night of track and field with one gold and 10 medals in total. Brits smash more impressively they are also third on the ‘placings table’ (where points are given for positions in finals) behind USA and Kenya with just one more event to come – the women’s marathon.
Brits smash relay, Botswana set their stall out early as they led after the first leg courtesy of Bayapo Ndori (44.30 split) from Christopher Bailey of the United States (44.45) with Britain’s Alex Haydock-Wilson (44.51) running a fine opener.
Lewis Davey takes the baton (Getty)
Botswana held the lead on the second leg with Busang Kebinatshipi (43.39) holding off Vernon Norwood (43.26) of the US and Matt Hudson-Smith (43.09) of Britain.
Charlie Dobson (Getty)
At the start of the third leg Bryce Deadmon (43.54) burst into the lead for the US from Botswana’s Anthony Pesala (43.80) but Lewis Davey (44.90), who was standing in for a slightly injured Sam Reardon, blasted past the Botswana runner down the back straight and into second place although Pesala returned the favour in the home straight as he passed the Brit.
Rai Benjamin holds off Letsile Tebogo (Getty)
Into the final lap, the United States led from Botswana with Rai Benjamin (43.18), the individual 400m hurdles champion, holding off Letsile Tebogo (43.04), the 200m gold medallist at these Games.
“I knew Rai was going to do his job,” said Norwood. “I was thinking ‘come on, come on.”
Tebogo added: “It was a tough race. I just had to chase and close the gap and to see if I had any energy left for one final kick.”
Charlie Dobson (43.33) was running in no man’s land in third with Belgium a little adrift in fourth. So it ended up being a trouble-free leg for the young Brit as he steered the nation to the podium and a European record.
Brits celebrate (Getty)
Brits smash celebrate
Hudson-Smith said: “I was literally on the floor, I couldn’t get off the track. We said we were going to fight for each other and we did. We came away with a bronze and a national (and European) record. We put our heart and soul in that run. It’s such an amazing feeling to come away with bronze for our country and ourselves. We smashed the previous record.”
In fourth, Belgium set a national record of 2:57.75 with a South African record of 2:58.12 in fifth and Japanese record of 2:58.33 in sixth.