Great Britain’s sprint relay teams both took silver as the USA and Jamaica struck 4x100m gold on the penultimate day of the World Athletics Championships in Doha.
Britain’s men broke the national record they’d set when winning gold on home soil two years ago, but it was not enough as a star-studded US team defied a series of overly-safe hand-offs to break the American record and take gold.
Boasting the 100m gold and silver medallists in Christian Coleman and Justin Gatlin, as well as the 200m champion, Noah Lyles, the US relied on raw speed and avoided the changeover errors that so nearly denied them a place in this final to romp home in 37.10, the third fastest time in history.
The British team of Adam Gemili, Zharnel Hughes, Ricard Kilty and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake finished second in 37.36, with Japan taking bronze.
Having been rested in qualifying, Dina Asher-Smith returned to join Asha Philip, Daryl Neita and Ashleigh Nelson in the women’s quartet and win her third medal of these championships, to go with her gold from the 200m and silver from the 100m.
However, it was a Jamaican side featuring world 100m champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce that stole the show, taking gold in 41.44, with a sub-par USA team just holding off Switzerland for bronze.
Earlier in the evening the crowd had been treated to an incredible men’s shot put final, with the three medallists separated by a single centimetre.
The USA’s Ryan Crouser and New Zealand’s Tomas Walsh had both broken the championship record, and looked to be duping it out for gold, only for another American, Joe Kovacs, to throw 22.91 in the sixth and final round to steal the title. Crouser took the silver ahead of Walsh on countback as all three men moved into the top five on the all-time list.
Hellen Obiri defied a sporadic season to successfully defend her 5,000m title as she led home a Kenyan one-two, with teammate Margaret Kipkemboi taking the silver and Germany’s Konstanze Klosterhalfen the bronze. Britain’s Laura Weightman and Eilish McColgan were seventh and tenth respectively, both in new personal best times.
Venezuelan superstar Yulimar Rojas all-but wrapped up gold with a huge leap of 15.37m in the second round of the women’s triple jump final, with Shanieka Ricketts of Jamaica taking silver and former world champion Caterine Ibarguen of Colombia the bronze.
