European Championships: Britain win men’s 4x100m and women’s 4x400m titles

Great Britain won two relay titles on the final day of the European Championships in Amsterdam on Sunday.

James Dasaolu, Adam Gemili, James Ellington and CJ Ujah took the men’s 4x100m title in 38.17 seconds.

Emily Diamond, Anyika Onuora, Eilidh Doyle and Seren Bundy-Davies won the women’s 4x400m title in three minutes 25.05 seconds.

Britain claimed 16 medals – including five golds – their highest tally at a European Championships in 58 years.

Poland (12 medals, six golds) finished top of the medal table, with Germany (16 medals, five golds) second, ahead of Great Britain.

Britain were also second in the women’s 4x100m relay, and third in the men’s 4x400m final.

Dasaolu, Gemili, Ellington and Ujah defended Britain’s men’s 4x100m title, won in Switzerland two years ago, by finishing 0.21secs ahead of France in second, with Germany third.

Ellington, along with Gemili, was part of the men’s team who won 4x100m gold in Zurich two years ago.

“Everyone is running fast in our team, so the only difficulty is to select the right team because we have so many good runners right now,” he said.

“We could have had a number of different team compositions today. Yet any of our teams would have done great.”

The women’s 4x400m team set the fastest time in the world this year as they won Britain’s first European gold in the women’s 4x400m since 1969, pushing France into second place, while Italy took bronze.

Onuora, who won an individual 400m bronze on Friday, said: “We’ve got a great team. It was a perfect finish. It couldn’t have been better.”

Asha Philip, Dina Asher-Smith, Bianca Williams and Daryll Neita secured 4x100m silver by finishing just ahead of Germany while Dafne Schippers’ Netherlands team were clear winners.

Schippers, Jamile Samuel, Tess van Schagen and Naomi Sedney won in 42.04 seconds – a national record – with the British quartet second in 42.45secs, their season’s best.

Asher-Smith said: “We’ve got the medal, and that’s what we wanted. It’s our season’s best, and we are very proud of ourselves.

“The Dutch girls were the best on the day, they are an absolutely amazing team. Honestly, there is nothing we could have done today. We ran our fastest.”

It meant that the British women’s 4x100m team lost their European title, as did the men’s 4x400m quartet in agonising circumstances.

Matthew Hudson-Smith – running the anchor leg for team-mates Rabah Yousif, Delano Williams and Jack Green – led on the home straight, only to be caught near the line as Kevin Borlee led Belgium to victory in 3:01.10, a season’s European best, while Poland came through for second place.

Meanwhile, Robbie Grabarz won silver and fellow Briton Chris Baker took bronze in the high jump, as Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi secured gold.

Both men jumped 2.29m – a personal best for Baker – but Grabarz took the silver as he cleared the higher height at his first attempt, while Baker did so after missing once. Tamberi jumped 2.32m.

Elliot Giles won a surprise bronze for Britain in the men’s 800m, finishing behind a Polish one-two of Adam Kszczot and Marcin Lewandowski.

The 22-year-old – who won the British Championships last month – also achieved his first Olympic qualifying standard with a personal best time of 1:45.54 – 0.26 secs inside the Rio standard mark.

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