‘Eurovision, Euros, now this’: British 4x100m team hail Italy’s famous year after Olympic relay drama

‘Forget the Roman Empire, this is as big as it gets for them,’ joked Britain’s Richard Kilty after Italy added 4x100m gold to the country’s list of landmark triumphs in 2021

Italy’s Filippo Tortu pips Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake to gold (AP)

Italy’s extraordinary Olympic Games continued on Friday night and this time Britain were on the receiving end, as the men’s 4x100m team were pipped to gold by one hundredth of a second. Italy are not known for their track and field prowess, but after a year of national triumphs perhaps their fifth gold medal in Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium shouldn’t have been a shock.

“You can't be surprised,” said Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake, the man who couldn’t quite hold off the charge of Filippo Tortu in a gripping finish. “They won Eurovision, they won the Euros, they won the men's 100m and now they won gold in the four by one.”

Richard Kilty ran a storming bend to hand Mitchell-Blake the lead, and could only watch as gold turned to silver at the last. “Listen, in the history of mankind, this is Italy's biggest year ever,” he said with tongue firmly in cheek. “Forget the Roman Empire, all that nonsense. This is as big as it gets for them, so they better soak it in because they've conquered the world.”

For all their good humour the result brought mixed emotions for the British team. They finished fifth in Rio and worked hard in the intervening years to be in a position to challenge for medals in Tokyo, and when USA botched their handovers in the heats, the opportunity opened up for a serious shot at gold.

The British changes were smooth as CJ Ujah ran the first leg and handed to Zharnel Hughes on the back straight, but they didn’t quite have the leg speed to hold off an Italian team containing the surprise 100m champion Marcell Jacobs.

“Apologies if I seemed ungrateful at first,” said Mitchell-Blake, having initially looked distraught after that agonising finish. “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. We want to show the world we deserve to be on the platform we are.”

Kilty added: “God was looking over Italy tonight. I don't know where they dragged that from but it's just one of those bizarre things. We're better than them, we'll beat them next year. We'll let them have it this year.”

The men’s race followed a more decisive women’s race won by a dominant Jamaican team, with double world champion Elaine Thompson-Herah bringing home the baton to clinch her third gold of the Games, as USA took silver.

Britain made a mess of a couple of their handovers, particularly the opening exchange from Asha Philip to Imani-Lara Lansiquot, but Dina Asher-Smith surged around the bend and handed to Daryll Neita, who showed another glimpse of the form which took her to the 100m final earlier this week as she produced a strong anchor leg to win bronze.

The result provided some solace to Asher-Smith in particular after a frustrating Games in which her preparation was hampered by a hamstring injury. She exited the 100m at the semi-final stage and then withdrew from the 200m, but came back a few days later and looked back to her sharp best to help the relay team qualify for the final. And she was crucial again here as her pace around the bend helped bring Britain right back into the medal mix, using her natural 200m talents to pull away from the midfield pack.

“I think I’m in a bit of mixed emotions because obviously me the competitor, I’m like I could have done this and this, get a tenth, pushed for a different colour of medal,” she said. “But at the same time if I’m being honest on a personal journey I was on crutches six weeks ago and there was a 10 per cent chance – less than 10 per cent – that I was going to be here.

“To come away with 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. What actually hurt so much about the 100 and 200 is that all I need is another week, two weeks, and then I’d have literally been back to my normal speeds.”

Lansiquot seemed to go too early at the start of the second leg and Philip almost ran out of room in the changeover zone, just making the baton switch in time.

“Asha and I have great chemistry, we’re training partners, I was absolutely getting that baton,” the 23-year-old said. “Of course we can always improve, like Dina said we’re all competitors and we know that we can be better, but we’ve got the medal and that’s the most important thing.”