Usain Bolt has won the ninth gold medal of his career – a historic end to what he has promised will be his final Olympic Games.
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Minutes after Bolt’s race, the American men’s team, which crossed the line third, finished their entire lap of honour before realising they had been disqualified.
Japan took silver with a time of 37.60 seconds, and originally the USA was in bronze position with a time of 37.62 seconds.
US were disqualified as the Americans’ first exchange between Mike Rodgers and Justin Gatlin was judged to have taken place outside the exchange zone.
Bolt’s “triple-triple” comes by way of winning the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay titles at three consecutive Olympic Games.
Bolt had stated an ambition to be ranked alongside sporting greats such as Pele and Muhammad Ali following his 200m win and was understandably triumphant following his latest success.
Along with Bolt for his final trip down the track were Nickel Ashmeade, training partner Yohan Blake and the Jamaican elder statesman, former world-record holder Asafa Powell.
Bolt made sure to go out on top, using his otherworldly breakaway speed to give us one more jaw-dropping moment in a career that’s been loaded with them.
“I love competing. So I’m going to miss all of that”.
They clocked 37.27 seconds to finish ahead of Japan (37.60sec), sealing the country’s third straight win in this event.
De Grasse also picked up a silver medal in the men’s 200 metres and a bronze in the marquee 100 metres in Rio.
On his achievements, Bolt said: “It’s hard work, sweat and sacrifice”.
He grabbed the baton almost even with the U.S. team, but pulled away easily in the homestretch to give Jamaica its third consecutive 4×100 gold.
The Jamaican runner held the record for the 100m distance world record between June 2005 and May 2008. “I feel relief. I’ve been under all this pressure over the years”.
“I told myself if I was able to get any medal today, I would just be extremely happy, and I am”, said Morris, the 24-year-old American record-holder. That’s why it is my last Olympics. It didn’t feel like Mike ran up on me.
“I have to make a new bucket list now”, he said. I don’t really know the rules but I know if you get it before, you’re DQ’d.
Neither team came home with a medal from London 2012 but Germany, ranked second in the world, is a three-time bronze medalist.
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It was a fantastic day for the United States in athletics, as Ashton Eaton became only the second man to successfully defend the Olympic decathlon title, Ryan Crouser triumphed in the shot put, and the men’s and women’s 400-metre hurdles were won by Kerron Clement and Dalilah Muhammad, respectively.
