Olympic Track and Field 2021: Men's 4x100M Relay Medal Winners, Times, Results

For the first time in history, Italy won Olympic gold in the men's 4x100-meter relay at the 2021 Summer Games in Tokyo on Friday.

The quartet of Lorenzo Patta, Marcell Jacobs, Eseosa Desalu and Filippo Tortu set a new national record with a time of 37.50 seconds to win gold.

Italy narrowly beat Great Britain at the line, and the Brits had to settle for silver with a time of 37.51 seconds. Canada took bronze in 37.70 seconds.

Olympics.com provided a full listing of results for Friday's tightly contested race:

1. Italy: 37.50 seconds

2. Great Britain: 37.51

3. Canada: 37.70

4. China: 37.79

5. Jamaica: 37.84

6. Germany: 38.12

7. Japan: DNF

7. Ghana: DQ

Great Britain had the lead when the final baton pass was made, but Tortu had the run of his life to clip Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake at the line by single one-hundredth of a second:

Italy was considered a contender in Friday's race since Jacobs, the 100-meter gold medalist, was on the relay, but the team made the surprising decision to have him go second rather than be the anchor.

That move paid dividends, as Italy was in it largely because of Jacobs' performance that put Tortu in position to come from behind for the win.

Track and field coach Steve Magness marveled at Italy managing to come together as a team to win the 4x100-meter relay:

As surprising as Italy winning gold was, it was perhaps just as surprising that reigning world champion Team USA failed to make the final and Jamaica failed to medal, finishing a disappointing fifth.

The Americans had a disastrous semifinal performance, leaving them out of the final and extending their men's 4x100-meter woes at the Olympics, as they haven't medaled since 2004.

Meanwhile, Jamaica finished off the podium for the first time since 2008, as it won the race in both 2012 and 2016.

Tim Micallef of Sportsnet discussed the unpredictability of the men's 400 relay on Twitter:

Although Team GB lost in disappointing fashion, the silver medal was the nation's first medal of any kind in the event since taking silver in 1988. Chijindu Ujah, Zharnel Hughes, Richard Kilty and Mitchell-Blake made up Britain's runner-up team Friday.

Canada took bronze for the second consecutive Olympics with Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake, Brendon Rodney and Andre De Grasse leading the way. All of them except Blake were on the bronze-medal team five years ago in Rio de Janeiro as well.

De Grasse's late kick assured Canada a spot on the podium and gave him six career Olympic medals and three at these Games, as the 26-year-old won gold in the 200 and bronze in the 100.