The USA defended their 4x400m relay title in ruthless style as Allyson Felix became the most decorated American sprinter ever.

The US eased to victory by almost four seconds, ahead of Poland in second and Jamaica in third.

Great Britain were unable to better their bronze medal from Rio in 2016, finishing in fifth place.

Of the four US runners, Felix actually ran the slowest leg, which is a testament to the strength of this American team. The 35-year-old is the finest female sprinter ever and made history in the 400m yesterday as she claimed bronze to become the most decorated female track and field athlete ever.

Now, she has re-written the record books once more –– overtaking Carl Lewis to become America’s most successful athletics star.

Felix made her Olympic debut at Athens in 2004 and has won medals at every Olympics since then. Today was her fifth relay win, seventh gold medal and 11th medal in total.

Meanwhile, for Britain, there will be a hint of disappointment. The quartet ran a seasonal best time of three minutes 22.59 seconds, but this was still not enough for a podium place.

Speaking to BBC following the race, GB’s Jodie Williams said: "My focus was just to get to that break, and try and break ahead of the rest but that didn’t happen. You just have to focus on your lane and we’re all here to do a job."

Emily Diamond also gave her analysis and stressed that it was important for the side to take positives despite the result.

“The standard has come on and I think we can show that in the 400m depth we have in the UK,” she said.

“It was good we had a holding camp for the team. Of course, we wanted to place higher up but a time of three minutes, 22 seconds - we can’t beat ourselves up."

With Paris 2024 to come in three years, there are signs that the British team is improving and there is every chance they will fare better than they did today.

But for now, at least, it’s the US who are reigning supreme and nobody looks close to stopping them.