Italy, Jamaica rule

Italy sprinters celebrate after winning the 4x100m relay gold yesterday

Italy produced a stunning performance to win the men's 4x100 metres relay Olympic title for the first time in their history on Friday with a national record of 37.50sec, while Jamaica romped home to claim the women's crown.

Britain's men made up for a poor series of performances in the individual sprints by taking silver in 37.51sec while Canada won bronze in 37.70sec.

Italy's victory gave their surprise 100m individual champion Lamont Marcell Jacobs his second gold of the Games. The British looked like they would take an unlikely gold as they led by a metre at the final changeover.

Members of the Jamaican team are ecstatic following their win in the women's 4x100m relay final. Pics/AFP, AP; PTI

However, the unheralded Filippo Tortu reeled in Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake and sealed gold with the dip on the line. Behind them, Andre De Grasse ran a stunning anchor leg to overhaul both Jamaica and China to add relay bronze to his 200m gold medal and 100m bronze.

Tortu looked as stunned as anyone at the finish and put his hands to his head as he nimbly dodged some obstacles in his way. A sizeable group of Italian team members roared out in delight and serenaded the triumphant quartet with some Italian songs.

Meanwhile, Elaine Thompson-Herah won her third Olympic gold of the Tokyo Games as Jamaica won with a national record of 41.02sec.

Thompson-Herah - who achieved the sprint double double - ran the second leg, opening up a sizeable gap on their opponents. The United States took silver (41.45sec) and Britain the bronze (41.88sec).

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever