Italy sprang another sprint surprise at the Tokyo Olympics on Friday, winning the men's 4x100-meter relay after a botched baton change sank Japan's hopes of a medal on home soil.
The Italian team, including individual men's 100 winner Lamont Marcell Jacobs, edged Britain for gold in 37.50 after final runner Filippo Tortu got his nose across the line 0.01 second ahead of Britain's Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake.
Canada took bronze in 37.70, finishing ahead of China in fourth. Jamaica, the defending Olympic champions, ran fifth.
With a reputation as masters of the baton change, the Japanese team of Shuhei Tada, Ryota Yamagata, Yoshihide Kiryu and Yuki Koike were unable to make it through the first changeover as they tried to improve on a silver medal from the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games.
After running a strong opening leg, Tada failed to hand the baton to Yamagata, who appeared to start his run too early.
"I don't know what went wrong, but I want to look over it and make improvement," a tearful Tada said.
Koike, who had been positioned to run the final leg, said he hoped to take something positive from the heartbreak.
"We don't want to waste this. We failed (today) but we should not play too safe next time," Koike said. "I want to keep going forward and win the gold medal we were aiming for this time."
Earlier, Jamaica was too strong in the women's 4x100, with the team of Briana Williams, Elaine Thompson-Herah, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson storming across the line in 41.02 to finish ahead of the United States and Britain.
Shaunae Miller-Uibo of the Bahamas successfully defended her 2016 Olympic gold medal in the women's 400, separating from the field over the final 200 to go back-to-back in a personal-best 48.36.
The Dominican Republic's Marileidy Paulino was second in 49.20, while Allyson Felix of the United States took bronze, tying Carl Lewis' all-time U.S. track and field record with her 10th Olympic medal across four games.
Miller-Uibo completed a golden double for the Bahamas in the 400 following compatriot Steven Gardiner's win in the men's final on Thursday.
Kenya's Faith Kipyegon won the women's 1,500 in an Olympic record 3:53.11, finishing 1.39 clear of Britain's Laura Muir. Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands added 1,500 bronze to her gold in the 5,000. Japan's Nozomi Tanaka ran eighth in 3:59.95.
World champion over 10,000, Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda won the men's 5,000 in 12:58.15, pulling away over the last 100 to hold off Canada's Mohammed Ahmed. Paul Chelimo of the United States took bronze, beating fourth-placed Nicholas Kipkorir Kimeli of Kenya by a nose.
China's Liu Shiying won women's javelin gold, throwing a season's best 66.34 m to beat Poland's Maria Andrejczyk by 1.73 m. Australian Kelsey-Lee Barber threw 64.56 for bronze.
Japan was unable to advance to the men's 4x400 relay final after running fifth in its heat. The United States qualified fastest for the final, ahead of Botswana and Poland.
