British Athletics ‘hugely disappointed’ as men’s 4x400m disqualification stands

But shortly after he crossed the line, officials ruled that the third runner in the British quartet, Matthew Hudson-Smith, had part of his foot outside the takeover zone when he began running – and disqualified the team.

The Great Britain 4 x 400 men’s relay team consisting of Nigel Levine, Delano Williams, Matthew Hudson-Smith and Martyn Rooney, won their semi final heat (finishing their race in two minutes 58.88 seconds), only to find out they had been disqualified.

He told BBC Radio 5 live: “In the first changeover you have to be between two red lines which are about 20 metres apart. Whether the judges had decided he had started running because of that, it would be incredibly harsh”. “I think all our training is paying off”. I don’t want to say it’s corrupt because we don’t have evidence, but it’s insane how three teams are disqualified and Brazil have found themselves in the final.

Olympic authorities are yet to explain why Britain were disqualified, but there was a suggestion that it was to do with the final handover of the baton between Hudson-Smith and Rooney.

“I feel like Michael Conlan, the Irish boxer – it’s a similar situation to that but we don’t have proof of it”, he added. “There’s nothing we can do about it so it’s a tough position to be in”.

After the disqualification of the Great Britain team, Brazil has earned a spot in the final race along with seven other nations.

Ohuruogu, the Olympic 400m champion at Beijing 2008 and silver medallist at London 2012, said: “It’s nice we can smile now but we need to make sure we can shut down and Saturday is the big one”.