TOKYO: A US team spearheaded by Caeleb Dressel stormed to the men’s 4x100m Olympic relay gold medal in the third quickest time ever today.
Zach Apple brought them home after Dressel led off, with sizzling legs from Bowen Becker and Blake Pieroni ensuring they touched in at 3:08.97s ahead of Italy (3:10.11s) and Australia (3:10.22s).
“It feels great, we knew we had a huge target on our back. It feels nice, I’d say we dominated that pretty well,” said Dressel, who could win an incredible seven gold in Tokyo.
“We’re never going to doubt ourselves, that’s how Team USA works. We had a couple of people rule us out and we’re never going to take that.”
Dressel gave them a powerful start with a 47.26s opening leg and they never relinquished their lead.
Italy and France were battling for the minor medals until Australia’s Kyle Chalmers put in a cracking final leg to hand Australia bronze.