Seventeen years after Team GB won Olympic men's 4x100m gold by a hundredth of a second in Athens, they were just pipped to gold by the same margin in Tokyo.
Chijindu Ujah, Zharnel Hughes, Richard Kilty and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake banked Great Britain's third athletics medal in the space of an hour, following Laura Muir’s 1500m silver and women’s 4x100m bronze.
Italy powered to their first-ever Olympic sprint relay title in a time of 37.50 seconds with Team GB's quartet clocking 37.51 secs and Canada completing the podium.
The British team, whose time was a season's best, were leading coming into the home straight but Mitchell-Blake was chased down by Filippo Tortu in the final stride.
Ujah, who ran the anchor leg, said: "I’m used to doing that now. I’ve been doing it this whole cycle – a long cycle, five years.
"To round it off with a silver medal – I feel we’ve collected a medal at every major championships as a team. I'm super proud of these guys."
SO CLOSE.
— Team GB (@TeamGB) August 6, 2021
Our men's 4x100m team have to settle for silver after a photo finish in the relay.#TeamGB pic.twitter.com/SQ0KgoCSho
Hughes ran the second leg at a blistering pace to put Great Britain into a great position
He said: "Tonight was all about giving it our all. I knew CJ [Ujah] was going to come in fast tonight.
"My body is feeling well, and I gave it everything. We’ve always been dreaming about this moment and it came to pass."
Kilty, an experienced member of the British team reflected on their achievemnt: "After the heat we knew we had to pull it out and give it our everything, we would do anything – what more can we ask for?
"We're Olympic silver medallists. In Rio, we finished fifth and so we wanted a medal, we went to win it but we were unlucky.
"This is unity and a team and we're in this together and we absolutely pulled it out as a quartet to win this medal.
"And in 20 years' time we will look at this as one of the best moment of our lives."
Mitchell-Blake who ran the final leg and saw the Italian pip him agonisingly on the line was quick to show his gratitude.
He said: "Apologies if I seemed ungrateful at first.
"We put a lot of work and effort into this and we believe we're the best quartet in the world and we wanted to display that when the time comes.
"We want to show the world we deserve to be on the platform we are."