Despite the lack of fans, the Tokyo Olympics have been an utter joy to behold.Across the board we have seen simply sensational performances from the world's finest athletes, who have put on one heck of a show for our benefit.From Adam Peaty conquering the pool once again, to Karston Warholme running one of the greatest 400 meter hurdles of all time, we have certainly not been short of action.However, the men's shorter distance sprints did present somewhat of a question mark with very few able to nail down an absolute favourite following the retirement of global superstar, Usain Bolt.In the end, we were in for a surprise in the 100 meter, with Italian speedster Marcell Jacobs claiming golden glory in a time of 9.80 seconds.In the 200 meter, Andre DeGrasse stormed home for Canada ahead of a duo of Americans thanks to an electric time of 19.62.However, the biggest shock of the sprints came in the heats of the 4x100m after the USA contingent dramatically crashed out.Such is their pedigree, the USA will always enter a games as one of the favourites, regardless of who their runners are.That result, and the lack of Bolt, left the medal positions of this afternoon's final wide open.

In what turned out to be a spectacular race, the quartet from Italy came out on top in a brutally quick time of 37.50.

Having nailed each and every one of their handovers, the Italians pipped Team GB right at the last to claim a memorable gold medal.

They were followed closely behind by the team from Canada who claimed bronze.

It all looked to be Team GB going into the final stages after a superb handover set Richard Kilty flying around the bend in the penultimate leg.

With only yards to go the British quartet, through Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake were still ahead but a blistering final leg from Filippo Tortu saw Italy clinch the gold by a hair's breadth.

It rounded off what has been a superb few weeks for Italy who announced themselves on the global sprinting stage with a resounding bang.