More changeover woe for Britain

Great Britain’s sprint relay woes continued last night as another baton changeover mistake cost them a place in the 4x100 metres final at the Olympic Stadium.

The host nation were disqualified when anchor leg runner Adam Gemili set off too early as he was about to take the baton from Danny Talbot.

The 18-year-old slowed down dramatically, but the changeover still occurred outside the designated area.

Gemili sprinted for the line and came home second, but the fact he immediately put his hands to his head told the story.

The mistake continues a woeful record for Britain in the event, who, aside from the one glorious exception at the Athens 2004 Olympics, have lurched from one failure to the next.

Dropped batons at the Olympics in Atlanta (1996) and Sydney (2000) and the World Championships in Edmonton (2001), along with a disqualification at the last Olympics in Beijing and the World Championships in Daegu (2011) have ended their chances.

They also went out in the first round at the last European Championships in Barcelona two years ago, while at the most recent Europeans earlier this summer they also failed to get the baton round.

Jamaica, without Usain Bolt, qualified safely, but the United States were the quickest through in a new national record of 37.38 seconds.

It got worse for Britain in the 4x400m relay as they finished an agonising fourth in the final at the Olympic Stadium last night as a courageous anchor-leg run from Martyn Rooney just came up short.

Rooney attacked round the final bend and on the home straight past Russia’s Pavel Trenikhin and was closing on Trinidad’s Deon Lendore, but was held off.

The host quartet, which also included Conrad Williams, Jack Green and Dai Greene, finished in two minutes 59.53 seconds.

The Bahamas won in 2 mins 56.72secs, with the United States second and Trinidad third, 0.31s ahead of Britain.

South Africa, with Oscar Pistorius on the fourth leg, finished eighth.

Meanwhile, the United States showed Britain’s sprinters how it is done to win the women’s 4x100m relay in a world record of 40.82 seconds.

The team of Tianna Madison, Allyson Felix, Bianca Knight and Carmelita Jeter raced away from their closest challengers Jamaica to take gold.

The Jamaicans ran a national record of 41.41, but still finished well adrift, while Ukraine took the bronze.