Italy Sprints to Gold Again in Men’s 4 x 100m Relay

The Tokyo 2020 Olympics has been an incredible display of Italy’s athletics talent. They net a stunning 5 gold medals throughout the ten days of track and field.

First, Gianmarco Tamberi, tied for gold in the high jump with a leap of 2.37 meters. A mere ten minutes later, Lamont Marcell Jacobs took gold for the country in the men’s 100-meter sprint. He became the world’s new sprint champion, finishing in 9.80s. In the longer distances, Antonella Palmisano won gold in the women’s 20km race walk and Massimo Stano also won gold in the men’s 20 km race walk.  

In the finals for the men’s 400-meter relay on Friday, August 6th, 2021, Italy upset a field of top contenders to win yet another gold medal in track and field.

Photo by JEWEL SAMAD/AFP via Getty Images

The team was composed of Lorenzo Patta, Eseosa Desalu, Filippo Tortu and Lamont Marcell Jacobs.  

The race began with strong starts from all the countries.  The United States was absent following an early disqualification in the semi-finals round due to poor exchanges. Great Britain began to build ground, but there were still 300 meters to be run. After a smooth hand off from Patta, Jacobs ran the second leg of the race. At the second to third exchange, Britain still held a slight lead. However, this gap was quickly being closed by Italy’s Eseosa Desalu of Italy and China’s Xie Zhenye. 

Coming around the final bend, the race became an exhilarating sprint for the finish. Italy and Great Britain were the two front runners. As the two athletes came blazing down the straight Italy’s anchor leg, Filippo Tortu, made significant ground on Mitchelle-Blake from Great Britain. Meanwhile Canada’s Andre De Grasse, outran China and Jamaica to move into a third-place position. At the line, Tortu, the first Italian sprinter to break the 10 second barrier, dipped to edge out Britain.

In the end, Italy took the victory with a time of 37.50s. Great Britain came in second by a mere hundredth of a second at 37.51s. Canada placed third with a time of 37.70s.

The race was a victorious win for Italy, and a devastating miss on the gold medal for Great Britain. This was the Italy’s first ever victory in the 4 x 100 meter relay. The event was a closure to Italy’s victories of the game, returning from Tokyo with 5 medals; all of them gold.

The entire race can be seen on YouTube on the NBC Sports channel.