Canada wins men's 4x100 relay at Paris Games; U.S. DQ'd - ESPN

Canada won the men's Olympic 4x100-meter relay on Friday after hot favorite the United States messed up a changeover yet again and was disqualified.

Andre De Grasse ran a superb last leg to bring the Tokyo silver medalists home in 37.50 seconds for their second gold in the event following their 1996 win.

Akani Simbine, who finished fourth in the individual 100 meters, ran a terrific last leg to get South Africa silver in an African-record 37.57, as did Zharnel Hughes to earn Britain bronze in 37.61.

Hughes was in the team that finished second in Tokyo but was later stripped of the medal because of a doping offence by teammate CJ Ujah.

The U.S. failure was the latest in a long series as it has not won the event it used to dominate since 2000.

Christian Coleman gave the Americans a great start but ended up virtually colliding with Kenny Bednarek at the first handover. They recovered to finish well down the field but were disqualified as the exchange was illegal.

«It just didn't happen,» Coleman said. «Maybe we could have put in some more work. I just think in the moment it didn't happen.»

Since 1995, in the Olympics and World Championships, the U.S. has now had 11 dropped batons, disqualifications or bans.

«At the end of the day, we knew what we could do,» said Kyree King, who ran the third leg. «We came out here and we had the mindset of no risk, no reward, so we went out there and went big. It didn't happen.»

Retired American sprinter Carl Lewis, who has twice won Olympic gold in the 4x100 relay blasted U.S. team officials for Friday's performance.

It is time to blow up the system. This continues to be completely unacceptable. It is clear that EVERYONE at <a href=«https://twitter.com/usatf?ref_src=» https:>@usatf

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