Mitchell-Blake (right) suffers an agonising defeat on the line as Filippo Tortu finished fast for Italy
Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake, who anchored Britain to world gold in 2017, was overhauled right on the line by Filippo Tortu as Italy snatched victory.Britain’s sprint relay teams delivered silver and bronze medals, with the men’s quartet missing out on the 4x100m title by just a hundredth of a second.
Earlier, Asha Philip, Imani-Lara Lansiquot, Dina Asher-Smith and Daryll Neita took a repeat of Rio bronze.
A Jamaican team with all three of the 100m individual medallists took gold.
Elaine Thompson-Herah, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson were joined by Briana Williams in a team that lived up to their status as red-hot favourites, winning in 41.02 seconds, well ahead of the United States.
Great Britain seemed set to clinch their first track and field title of the Games when Richard Kilty built on excellent opening legs from CJ Ujah and Zharnel Hughes with a superb bend.
But Mitchell-Blake, who memorably held off American world champion Christian Coleman to secure world gold in front of a home crowd four years ago, was overhauled by the less-celebrated Tortu in the final strides.
Mitchell-Blake’s disappointment was in contrast to Italy’s glee as they secured a fifth athletics gold of the Games, following Marcell Lamont Jacobs’ 100m victory, Gianmarco Tamberi’s high-jump success and a pair of race walk titles.
“Apologies if I seemed ungrateful at first,” said Mitchell-Blake, whose frustration was clear after he was pipped on the line having led until the final metre.
“It’s just we put a lot of work and effort into this and we believe we’re the best quartet in the world and we wanted to display that when the time comes.”
Mitchell-Blake was consoled by Kilty (right) after seeing gold slip through his grasp
Great Britain’s women’s quartet had set a national record of 41.55 in the semi-finals, going faster than they did in winning bronze at Rio 2016 or silver at Doha 2019.
They were unable to match that time in the final, but overcame a scratchy first baton exchange between Philip and Lansiquot to ensure Neita was best of the rest behind Jamaica and the United States as she took over on the anchor leg.
They finished in 41.88 seconds, 0.2 seconds clear of the fourth-placed Swiss.
Asher-Smith pulled out her attempt to add Olympic 200m gold to her world title in the event after failing to recover fully from a hamstring tear in June.
“I was on crutches six weeks ago and there was a 10% chance – less than 10% chance – that I was going to be here,” she said.
“A medal here is honestly something that I could not have even contemplated six weeks ago, seven weeks ago, not at all, so thank you so much ladies. It means a lot.
There will be no medal in the men’s 4x400m for Great Britain.
Cameron Chalmers, Joseph Brier, Lee Thompson and Michael Ohioze fell well short of Saturday’s final after coming sixth in their semi-final. The United States, with individual finalist Michael Norman and Michael Cherry still to come in, qualified fastest.
On Thursday Great Britain’s women’s team qualified fourth fastest for Saturday’s final (13:30 BST) and can call on Jodie Williams after her sixth place in the individual final.
The GB relay teams posed together, along with 1500m silver medallist Laura Muir, after their podium finishes
Mitchell-Blake was consoled by Kilty (right) after seeing gold slip through his grasp
The GB relay teams posed together, along with 1500m silver medallist Laura Muir, after their podium finishes
