Paris Olympics 2024: De Grasse anchors Canada to men’s 4x100m relay gold

Canada won the men’s Olympic 4x100m relay on Friday after hot favourites the United States messed up a changeover yet again and were disqualified.

Andre de Grasse ran a superb last leg to bring the Tokyo silver medallist home in 37.50 seconds for its second gold in the event following its 1996 win.

Akani Simbine, the nearly man of the individual 100 metres, ran a terrific last leg to get South Africa silver in an African record 37.57, as did Zharnel Hughes to earn Britain bronze in 37.61.

Hughes was in the team that finished second in Tokyo but was later stripped of the medal due to a doping offence by teammate CJ Ujah.

The U.S. failure was the latest in a long series as it has not won the event it used to dominate since 2000.

Christian Coleman gave it a great start but ended up virtually colliding with Kenny Bednarek at the first handover. The team recovered to finish well down the field, but was disqualified as the exchange was illegal.

Since 1995, in the Olympics and World Championships, the U.S. has now had 11 dropped batons, disqualifications or bans.