Filippo Tortu of Team Italy beats Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake of Team Great Britain across the finish line to win the gold medal in the Men’s 4 x 100m Relay Final on day fourteen of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games
Italy added the finishing touch to an already magical track and field performance at Tokyo Olympics with a gold medal in a thrilling men's 4x100m relay final.
Lorenzo Patta, Eseosa Desalu, Marcell Jacobs and Filippo Tortu finished in 37.50, edging out Great Britain's foursome by one one-hundredth of a second.
Tortu's spirited anchor leg caught and passed Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake in the closing strides for Italy's unprecedented fifth track and field gold medal of the Tokyo Olympics. Prior to Tokyo, the country had never won more than three at any single Games.
Earlier in the day Friday, race walker Antonella Palmisano took gold in the woman's 20k walk. Massimo Stano won the men's version of the event the day prior. On Sunday, Gianmarco Tamberi famously shared the men's high jump gold medal and, minutes later, Jacobs won the men's 100m in a huge upset.
Chijindu Ujah, Zharnel Hughes, Richard Kilty and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake of Great Britain won the silver while Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake, Brendon Rodney and Andre De Grasse finished in 37.70 to take bronze.
De Grasse extended his streak of winning a medal of some color in every Olympic event he's entered to six.
Tokyo Olympics
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Teams from Jamaica and Japan were expected to reach the podium after going 1-2 in Rio, but the home team dropped the baton on its first exchange and the 2016 champions Jamaica finished fifth.
The reigning world champion United States men's 4x100m relay team didn't race in the final after failing to advance beyond Thursday's preliminary heats. Trayvon Bromell, Fred Kerley, Ronnie Baker and Cravon Gillespie finished sixth in the second of two heats in 38.10, falling two hundredths of a second short of the final.
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