Usain Bolt won his ninth Olympic Games gold medal as he anchored Jamaica to victory in the men’s 4x100m relay in Rio.
Bolt took over on the last leg with a narrow deficit to Japan but soon overcame it and won by a wide-margin after some fine support from Asafa Powell, Yohan Blake and Nickel Ashmeade.
The sprint great has now won gold medals in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay at the last three Olympic Games, starting off in Beijing eight years ago and repeating the victories at London 2012.
Victory brings down the curtain on Bolt’s Olympic career as he has already stated he will retire from the sport at the end of the World Championships in London next summer.
Great Britain finished in fifth place, promoted from sixth, with Japan taking the silver and Canada the bronze after the United States quartet was disqualified.
Bolt said: “I’m just happy to have done what I came here to do. I’m just proud of myself. I have to give thanks to the guys, they really came through for me and I’m really happy about that.
“The pressure is real, but I look at it as an accomplishment. I enjoy pressure and I live for these moments. For me, it’s beautiful.
“I won’t celebrate now. I’m just going to go home and stay up late tonight, just talking and having fun.
“I’m just happy and relieved. I’ve done it and it’s unreal. I never knew from the start that this was going to happen to me and now it has it’s a brilliant feeling. I told the guys that if they didn’t come through for me I’d beat them up!”
“We wanted to win to make Usain immortal and he is immortal,” Blake added. “I’ve told him he should come back for 2020!”
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