Athletics and USA fail to qualify for men’s 4×100 relay final

TOKYO, Aug. 5 (Reuters) – The United States failed to advance to the Olympic men’s 4×100-meter relay final after an irregular run that saw them finish sixth in their semi-final on Thursday.

The US team included two of the individual 100m finalists, Fred Kerley and Ronnie Baker, world leader Trayvon Bromell and Cravon Gillespie, who also ran the heats en route to their 2019 world championship winning team.

But despite the depth of talent on display, a shocking second change saw them lose momentum and Gillespie was unable to put them back in the running in a mass finish, with China winning the surprise round in 37.92.

Canada was second, two thousandths of a second behind, and Italy, aided by new individual champion Lamont Marcell Jacobs, set a national record of 37.95 to qualify as well.

Jamaica led the way in the other semi, qualifying fastest at 37.82, ahead of Great Britain (38.02) and Japan (38.16)

After dominating the event for decades, a succession of disqualifications has helped the United States not manage gold since 2000 and this is the latest setback in what has been a significantly lower performance in Tokyo for the male side of the traditionally most powerful nation in sport. .

Reporting by Mitch Phillips, editing by Peter Rutherford

Our Standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.