Masterminds GB relay glory
and the legend will live on for many, many years.
A sad end for Bolt but a glory night for Britain as they won that historic gold in stunning style. The off-form Jamaicans may have blown out but there was no American foul-up to seize upon this time as with the famous Olympic gold in Athens 13 yearsago.itwasabrilliantandfully merited triumph.
For decades the time-honoured GB baton drop has gone down in the pantheon of Great British sporting “oops, they did it again” eye-rollers. Like an England football penalty shoot-out defeat, a glorious failure by their Scottish equivalents, an English cricket batting collapse or a Wimbledon semi-final defeat for Tim Henman.
Heading into Saturday’s final, the men’s sprint relay record of the past ten years read: five minor medals, five disqualifications or failures to finish.
Maguire and his coaches, including former sprinter and relay runner Christian Malcolm, can reflect on a night when things went like a dream and made all the training drills and relay camps worth the time, money and effort. There have been eras when Britain has had better sprinters at their disposal but, in a relay, a well-oiled team can often get the better of a collection of stars.
Reece Prescod, the only Brit to make the individual 100m final, wasn’t even required and it is now up to those new world champions to take the confidence into their solo events. And keep practising those handovers. Total perfection will forever be there to aim at.