(Reuters)-The Bahamas landed a shock 4x400m Olympic relay gold ahead of the United States as Britain came agonisingly close to bronze, while France’s Renaud Lavillenie was well clear of the field in the pole vault.
It was Bahamas’ first track and field Olympic gold medal. Chris Brown, Demetrius Pinder, Michael Mathieu and Ramon Miller sped home in a time of 2 minutes 56.72 seconds to take the win, getting revenge for losing out to the US in Beijing.
Bryshon Nellum, Joshua Mance, Tony McQuay and Angelo Taylor claimed silver for a relatively weak USA team with a time of 2:57.05, ending a run of seven successive golds in the event.
Trinidad and Tobago’s Jarrin Solomon clung on for bronze, despite Martyn Rooney’s fantastic final leg of 44.1 seconds.
It was GB men’s athletics captain and 400m hurdles specialist Dai Greene’s second fourth-placed finish of the Games.
The men’s pole vault was won by French favourite Renaud Lavillenie’s Olympic record jump of 5.97m.
Germany took silver and bronze with Bjorn Otto shading team-mate Raphael Holzdeppe on count-back after both cleared 5.91.
Britain’s Steve Lewis finished just outside the medals with a 5.75 leap only 7cm off his personal best, while Australian defending champion Steve Hooker – who is second behind Sergei Bubka on the all-time list but has struggled with injury and confidence this season – was unable to clear his opening height of 5.65.