Canada won the men’s Olympic 4×100-meter relay on Friday after hot favorite the United States messed up a changeover yet again and was disqualified.
Andre De Grasse ran a superb last leg to bring the Tokyo silver medalists home in 37.50 seconds for their second gold in the event following their 1996 win.
Akani Simbine, who finished fourth in the individual 100 meters, ran a terrific last leg to get South Africa silver in an African-record 37.57, as did Zharnel Hughes to earn Britain bronze in 37.61.
Hughes was in the team that finished second in Tokyo but was later stripped of the medal because of a doping offence by teammate CJ Ujah.
The U.S. failure was the latest in a long series as it has not won the event it used to dominate since 2000.
Christian Coleman gave the Americans a great start but ended up virtually colliding with Kenny Bednarek at the first handover. They recovered to finish well down the field but were disqualified as the exchange was illegal.
Since 1995, in the Olympics and World Championships, the U.S. has now had 11 dropped batons, disqualifications or bans.
Information from Reuters was used in this report.