England suffer Commonwealth Games heartbreak as officials disqualify them from 4x400m relay final in Birmingham

ByEurosport

Updated 08/08/2022 at 07:28 GMT

England suffered Commonwealth Games heartbreak on Sunday as Victoria Ohuruogu, Jodie Williams, Ama Pipi and Jessie Knight were disqualified from the 4x400m relay final. Knight had beaten Canada's Kyra Constantine to the line by the smallest of margins, but officials would review the changeover between Ohuruogu and Williams, and concluded that England had stepped outside their lane.

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England's relay team of Victoria Ohuruogu, Jodie Williams, Ama Pipi and Jessie Knight suffered 4x400m heartbreak at the Commonwealth Games.

The quartet – who thought they had seen anchor Knight seal gold by a thousandth of a second - were disqualified from the final after Williams and Ohuruogu were adjudged to have infringed the rules on their changeover.

Knight – a 400m hurdles specialist – lunged at the line to beat Canada's Kyra Constantine by the smallest of margins.

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However, as the British quartet celebrated, officials were scrutinising the changeover between Ohuruogu and Williams, and adjudged that England had stepped out of their lane.

England elected not to appeal the decision meaning the host nation were denied an eighth athletics gold of the games.

The win moved Canada into gold, Jamaica into silver and Scotland took bronze.

Earlier, Scotland's Laura Muir won the 1500 metres to secure her first major world gold medal.

The 29-year-old, who won bronze after finishing third in the 800 metres on Saturday, saw off the competition in a blistering time of 4:02.75, with Northern Ireland’s Ciara Mageean and Australia’s Abbey Caldwell taking silver and bronze respectively. Muir's team-mate Jemma Reekie narrowly missed out on a medal.

"This meant a lot to me, running here,” she told BBC Sport afterwards.

“It’s so nice to come here and not just get one but two [medals]. It’s such a competitive field and these girls are fast, so yeah, it means a lot.”

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