Ghosts of relays past return as Britain’s women suffer baton disaster in Munich

Dina Asher-Smith had expected to bring the curtain down on an exceptional European championships for Britain by leading the 4x100m women to gold. Instead she was left with her hands on her hips as the ghosts of relays past came back to haunt the team.

Dropped batons used to be one of those perennial British problems, alongside late-running trains and bad food at motorway service stations.

And between the Atlanta Games in 1996 and the world championships in Beijing in 2015, a GB 4x100m team dropped the baton or were disqualified 11 times in an Olympics or world championships.

However in recent years Britain have turned baton-changing into an art form – and reaped the rewards. So it was a major surprise to see Imani‑Lara Lansiquot hold out her hand for the baton on the second leg – and her teammate Asha Philip fail to get it to her. It meant the team were left shaking their heads as the German team delighted the 50,000 home crowd by taking gold.

“I’m shocked by what happened out there,” Philip said. “I can’t really get my head around it. We came here to defend our title but things just didn’t go my way in that race.”

It said a lot about the bond in the team that Philip was comforted by her teammates. Asher‑Smith tried to put what had happened into perspective.

“As I was saying to these ladies, we’re so strong,” she said. “I feel like it’s one of those things where behind the scenes this year, we’ve worked so hard, we’ve improved so much and nothing is ever going to change that. If that means our time comes in Budapest and Paris then so be it.

“Some things that are very frustrating, make us sharper and make us want it even more. This is anomaly.”

Britain ended these championships with 20 medals – their joint second best