Eilidh Doyle leads GB off to relay bronze

Eilidh Doyle will take home a relay bronze after her individual disappointment. PICTURE: Getty Images

Doyle had been rested for the previous day’s heats off the back of her 400m hurdles but came back in and ran a storming first leg to set the British team up beautifully.

The end result saw Ohuruogu, who showed her experience in the last leg to hold off the chasing pack, win a medal at a third successive Olympics and took the athletics team’s tally to seven, seeing them meet their UK Sport minimum target for Rio 2016.

Allyson Felix led the United States home for gold ahead of Jamaica,

Meanwhile, Martyn Rooney accused host nation Brazil of betraying the Olympic spirit after Great Britain’s controversial disqualification handed them a place in the Olympic 4x400 metres relay final.

Mystery surrounded the team’s disqualification after winning their semi-final in emphatic fashion on Friday night.

The quartet of Nigel Levine, Delano Williams, Matt Hudson-Smith and Rooney came home first in two minutes 58.88 seconds, establishing themselves as strong medal contenders, but those hopes were soon dashed.

It emerged the reason behind the decision was that third-leg runner Hudson-Smith was deemed to have part of his foot outside the takeover zone when he started running.

British Athletics appealed, using video evidence provided by the BBC, but it was rejected after the footage proved inconclusive, meaning the officials’ original decision was upheld.

European champion Rooney claimed Brazil did not deserve to be in the final, with Trinidad and Tobago and India also finding themselves disqualified. Brazil went on to finish last in the final as the United States took gold.

“I don’t want to say it’s corrupt because we don’t know and I don’t have evidence to say either way, but it’s crazy how three teams are disqualified and Brazil have found themselves in the final,” said Rooney.

“I understand they ran very well for them, but they didn’t qualify for the final and that should be it.

“It’s not in the spirit of the Olympics to go and look to get people disqualified. I feel like Michael Conlan the boxer, (I) feel it’s a similar situation to that, but we don’t have proof of it. It’s a very bitter pill to swallow.”

Conlan launched a foul-mouthed tirade after finding himself on the wrong end of a highly controversial unanimous decision against Russia’s Vladimir Nikitin in their bantamweight quarter-final.

Rooney admitted the team were “very bitter” and “very angry” at seeing their medal hopes crushed in such heartbreaking circumstances.

“It’s something I’ve never been through before,” he said. “I felt we haven’t done anything wrong, ran out of our skins and just had it taken away from us.

“It’s just a very odd feeling. We’re powerless to change it. Even though I know we’re in the right there’s nothing we can do about it, so it’s a tough position to be in.

“We proved we were in contention for a medal, so it’s very tough being in the village knowing that I’m not going to be able to race.”

Athletics’ world governing body the IAAF said in a statement: “The decision to reject the British protest was made late last night by the Jury of Appeal. Apparently it was a clear case.”

For Rooney himself it completed a Games to forget after he crashed out in the heats of the individual 400m.

“It’s been a terrible week for me,” he said. “Individually I can only blame myself and now for us to turn it around and have it taken from us from someone above is a horrible, horrible experience and I wouldn’t wish it on anybody.”