Tokyo Olympics: Su Bingtian’s China sprinters miss out on 4x100m relay medal
- Su Bingtian and company’s 37.79 not enough to better Rio 2016 fourth-place finish
- China’s women finish sixth in season’s best 42.71 seconds in first 4x100m relay since Sydney 21 years ago
China’s pursuit of another gold fell short in the men’s 4x100m relay but a national record-equalling 37.79 seconds run from their speedsters at the Olympic Stadium got them as close as they have been to a medal.
Asia’s fastest man Su Bingtian, Tang Xingqiang, Wu Zhiqiang and Xie Zhenye finished in fourth after Canada pipped them to the line, the second Games in a row where they have just missed out on the podium.
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Three of the Tokyo quartet – Tang, Xie and Su – had finished fourth in Rio (along with Zhang Peimeng) in 37.90 seconds, while only 32-year-old Su remained from the fifth-place finish in London nine years ago.
Italy’s remarkable sporting summer continued as Marcell Jacobs added 4x100m gold to his shock 100m gold on this track earlier in the week. They won in 37.50 seconds, just 0.01 seconds ahead of the British quartet.
Great Britain had a commanding lead but lost it to the Italians to slip to silver, while Canada (37.70) won bronze, just as they had in Rio.
The podium had a very different look, though. Jamaica’s dominance over this distance dating back to Beijing 2008 ended, while Rio silver medallists Japan did not finish.
China ran a 37.92-second season best in their heat to reach the final, with Canada a fraction of a second behind them to the line, while only Jamaica went faster than them across the heats.
That went out of the window in the final, but China could have done little more.
China’s women’s 4x100m relay team finished seventh in their first Olympic final in 21 years. They finished sixth in a season’s best 42.71 seconds, well off the electric pace of Jamaica in 41.02, a national record.
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The USA finished second in a season’s best 41.45 seconds, with Great Britain winning bronze in 41.88 seconds.
