Britain’s sprint relay boys powered back onto a global podium a year after being stripped of their Olympic silver medal.
On the penultimate day of the World Championships they consigned to history the memory of CJ Ujah’s failed test, which cost three innocent athletes their greatest achievement.
Zharnel Hughes and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake were among that unfortunate trio but put it behind them at Hayward Field by teaming up to great effect with new boy Jona Efoloko and Reece Prescod.
“What happened in the past is in the past,” said Hughes after the quartet clocked 37.83 seconds to finish behind USA and surprise winners Canada. “This is a new history. We did it again.”
British team captain Mitchell-Blake, who handed the baton to Prescod to bring home safely in only his second ever relay, added: “We can’t control the past, we can only control the present, and ultimately that dictates the future.
“We stepped up when we had to and I feel our quality has been validated.”
This was a display of considerable character to get the show back on the road after Japan, even if the quartet did not see it like that.
“We have shown that we are serial medallists in this relay,” said Mitchell-Blake. “We get one every year now and it’s becoming normalised and sometimes under-appreciated.
“We don't fear anybody but I feel like relay medals are brushed under the rug because of the constant success of our teams.”
They are not under-appreciated by UK Athletics who regularly need them in order to hit their medal target for funding purposes.
In the past two Worlds this team has won gold and silver, but the road to bronze here required them to change the line-up after qualifying only seventh fastest.
Efoloku, the 2018 world junior 200m champion, came in on the lead-off leg and on his senior debut got them in the mix.
Hughes then ran a blinding 8.96sec back straight, allowing Mitchell-Blake to consolidate their position and Prescod to finish the job.
