GREAT BRITAIN’S 4x400 metre relay outfit narrowly missed out on a medal – with York athlete Richard Buck suffering more Olympics disappointment.

The Bahamas beat the USA to take gold, but Team GB’s Martyn Rooney was unable to run down Trinidad & Tobago’s Deon Lendore in the home stretch to take the bronze.

World 400m hurdle champion Dai Greene, fourth in his individual event and joining fellow hurdler Jack Green, was brought into the line up and the selection meant misery for Buck, who missed out on a place in the quartet once again.

Having not taken part in Thursday’s qualifying heat either, this was the second time the City of York Athletics Club one lap specialist, and former Pickering schoolboy, had been picked for an Olympic relay squad but failed to make the team – after not recovering in time from injury and illness four years ago in Beijing.

Rooney came into his anchor leg in fifth place, with Conrad Williams, Green and Greene keeping the team hanging on to a medal chance.

But, despite running a stirling 44.1 seconds, Rooney failed by just over a tenth of a second to snatch a bronze medal.

Greene said: “It is the worst place to finish and it has happened to us twice now (in Olympics).

“As a team, we ran faster than we did on Thursday and, unfortunately, we didn’t quite finish in the medals. We did a really good job.”

Meanwhile, Great Britain’s 4x400m women’s team, which included individual silver medallist Christine Ohuruogu running the last leg, qualified for today’s final after finishing third behind the USA and Russia in their heat in a time of 3.25.05.

There was calamity for Team GB’s 4x100m team, who, not for the first time, suffered baton woe.

Adam Gemili failed to grab it in time from Daniel Talbot before passing the yellow line and, although he ran on to bring the team home in second in their heat, they were disqualified.

The US women’s 4x100m relay team smashed the world record to win gold with a time of 40.82 – taking nearly half a second off the old mark set by the East Germans back in 1985.

Elsewhere, controversy has dogged Lutalo Muhammad ever since he was picked ahead of world champion Aaron Cook in the -80kg taekwondo division.

But he recovered from a quarter-final defeat at the ExCeL earlier yesterday to bag a bronze medal with a 9-3 victory over Arman Yeremyan.

Muhammad said: “It feels really good and I am very happy for the opportunity. My aim was to come here and win a medal.

“Unfortunately it wasn’t gold but I will go for that (bronze). The crowd were tremendous. I am a London boy and this makes it all the sweeter.

“This is a fantastic moment and I will remember it for the rest of my life. It was an awesome experience.”

At the Aquatic Centre, though, Tom Daley only just qualified for today’s semi-final of the men’s 10m platform diving.

The 18-year-old bombed his fifth dive in the competition to put himself on the brink of an early exit.

But he held his nerve on his final dive, with no room for error, to squeeze into the next stage – despite being well below his best.