No ‘endgame’ – GB miss out on first medal in Tokyo

Great Britain were unable to extend their run of global relay medals as the mixed 4x400m team fell short of a podium place on the opening night of the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.

Team GB made the podium in every relay event at the Paris 2024 Olympics, supplying five of the nation’s 10 athletics medals at last summer’s Games.

That came after four relay medals were won at the previous World Championships two years ago, which included silver for the mixed 4x400m quartet on that occasion.

In Saturday’s earlier session in Japan, the British squad had qualified for the final with the second-fastest time but Lewis Davey, Emily Newnham, Tony Harries and Nicole Yeargin finished fifth in the medal race, just 0.23 seconds shy of the podium in a close finish behind runaway winners the United States.

Team USA equalled the championship record in three minutes 08.80 seconds to take gold, with the Netherlands – anchored by hurdles star Femke Bol – and Belgium completing the podium.

“Great Britain will obviously come away disappointed. We perhaps hoped they might have been a little bit more in the mix than they were,” four-time global heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis-Hill said on BBC One.

“Overall it was a very tough race. The Netherlands and United States were so far ahead. They were fantastic and there were some huge times ran there, so it was always going to be difficult.

“I do feel there is some disappointment there for Great Britain, they could’ve performed slightly better.”

Reflecting on his third leg, Harries said: “I had a lot of work to do. We’re here to win medals, we’re GB, we’re not here to just compete.

“I went out as hard as I could to try and hold it. I just didn’t have that endgame.”

Yeargin added: “I should have trusted myself and overtaken [Bol] when I could. I almost tripped her, we clashed spikes.

Jazmin Sawyers was left “gutted” after missing out on the women’s long jump final on her post-injury return to a global championship.

The 31-year-old ruptured her Achilles in early 2024, which caused her to miss the Olympics amid a 20-month spell away from competition before making her comeback in May.

But despite a season’s best of 6.89m, Sawyers could only manage a best of 6.54m as she failed to advance.

“I’m gutted. That’s one of my worst competitions of the year,” Sawyers told BBC Sport.

“I feel like so many people put in such hard work to get me here and I just wish I could’ve made their work mean a little more.

Muir was left perplexed by her failure to progress in the women’s 1500m after she faded from contention in the closing stages.

The 32-year-old, an Olympic and world medallist, had made the past eight global outdoor 1500m finals but endured an injury-disrupted start to this season.

“I don’t know what happened and I think that’s the most upsetting thing,” said Muir.

“I feel like I’ve had a bit of a disrupted year but I was coming into form really well. I was excited with the shape that I was in, so I was definitely aiming to make the final and be competitive in that final

“This has probably been the hardest journey I’ve had to get to the World Championships, so to have gone out in the first round makes it really difficult.”

All six of Britain’s 100m entrants safely progressed to Sunday’s semi-finals, before both the men’s and women’s medal races take place later in the session.

Dina Asher-Smith, Amy Hunt and Daryll Neita advanced from their respective heats in the women’s event, with world bronze medallist Zharnel Hughes, Jeremiah Azu and Romell Glave continuing in the men’s.