Relay medals underpin Great Britain’s athletics success in Paris

Lewis Davey, who is a training partner of Hodgkinson, then maintained the team among the medal positions after coming in as a late replacement for Sam Reardon before Charlie Dobson, an individual European Championships silver medalist, finished things off on the final leg. The time of 2min 55.83sec is a British record and Hudson-Smith believes that what is a relatively young team could eventually even challenge the American world record that stands at 2min 54.29sec. “I need a beer – it was an amazing Olympic Games,” said Hudson-Smith. “I wanted to come away with two medals and to do this one for the boys. “I’ve got the best team in the world.”

The men were followed 10 minutes later by the women to round off the Olympic track-and-field program inside the Stade de France. Securing this last medal always promised to be a bigger challenge given the strength of the US, Dutch and Irish teams but the emergence this year of Amber Anning proved crucial on the anchor leg. And, after Victoria Ohuruogu, Laviai Nielsen and Nicole Yeargin had combined to hand over in second, Anning brilliantly withheld the Irish challenge in British record 3min 19.72sec. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s 47.70sec split is also worth a mention as part of what was the US’s 14th athletics gold.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen had earlier confirmed his status among the absolute best of his generation following the bitter disappointment at failing to defend his 1500m title by winning gold over 5,000m.

Britain’s George Mills was racing for the fifth time of an eventful Olympics but looked weary and, after an early appearance near the front of a field, finished 21st. An extraordinary 800m had earlier seen four men dip under 1min 42sec, with Emmanuel Wanyonyi making it five consecutive Kenyan victors after leading virtually from start to finish in 1min 41.19sec, the third-fastest time in history.

Team GB’s Max Burgin had given himself a chance of a medal by following Wanyonyi’s pace but faded in the back straight before finishing last of the eight finalists, although in a time of 1min 43.84sec that only a select few British athletes have ever improved. The rapid times were a further sign of how the event has been redefined recently, with Lord Coe’s long-standing 1min 41.73sec world record beaten here by four runners and surely on borrowed time as the oldest remaining British track record.