Great Britain were unable to extend their run of global relay medals as the mixed 4x400m team fell short of a podium place on the opening night of the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.
Team GB made the podium in every relay event at the Paris 2024 Olympics, supplying five of the nation’s 10 athletics medals at last summer’s Games.
That came after four relay medals were won at the previous World Championships two years ago, which included silver for the mixed 4x400m quartet on that occasion.
In Saturday’s earlier session in Japan, the British squad had qualified for the final with the second-fastest time but Lewis Davey, Emily Newnham, Tony Harries and Nicole Yeargin finished fifth in the medal race, just 0.23 seconds shy of the podium in a close finish behind runaway winners the United States.
Team USA equalled the championship record in three minutes 08.80 seconds to take gold, with the Netherlands – anchored by hurdles star Femke Bol – and Belgium completing the podium.
“Great Britain will obviously come away disappointed. We perhaps hoped they might have been a little bit more in the mix than they were,” four-time global heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis-Hill said on BBC One.
“Overall it was a very tough race. The Netherlands and United States were so far ahead. They were fantastic and there were some huge times ran there, so it was always going to be difficult.
“I do feel there is some disappointment there for Great Britain, they could’ve performed slightly better.”
Reflecting on his third leg, Harries said: “I had a lot of work to do. We’re here to win medals, we’re GB, we’re not here to just compete.
“I went out as hard as I could to try and hold it. I just didn’t have that endgame.”
Yeargin added: “I should have trusted myself and overtaken [Bol] when I could. I almost tripped her, we clashed spikes.
“I hope we do better in the men’s and women’s relays.”