A wretched athletics tradition reared its ugly head today to spoil the Team GB party - namely, the Great British relay farce as the reigning champions crashed out.

Craig Pickering was left blaming himself for a horrendous error which led to their disqualification in today's heats as the 2008 hopefuls became the latest in a long line of British sprint squads over the past two decades to make a medal-losing blunder.

Pickering said: "I feel like I let myself down and I have let the whole country down. We were going to win another medal for sure. I was the outgoing athlete, I take responsibility for it."

The blunder came when Marlon Devonish attempted to pass the baton to Pickering on the final changeover only to find the Bath sprinter had made his move too early.

Devonish tried to stretch out with the baton as anchor man Pickering, realising his error, tried to check at the edge of the changeover box but he almost had to come to a standstill by the time he clutched it. Too late; it was a desperately close call but clearly he had collected the baton beyond the box.

A forgiving Devonish said afterwards: "Craig should not take full responsibility, it's a team event. We trained really hard for this and anything can happen."

This was particularly a golden opportunity blown because in the preceding heat, the Americans, favourites along with the Usain Bolt-inspired Jamaicans, had also crashed out on the last changeover - with Darvis Patton and Tyson Gay conspiring to spill the stick.

Astonishingly, the US women's quartet had a similar calamity, failing to finish their heat, but the British foursome of Jeanette Kwakye, Montell Douglas, Emily Freeman and Emma Ania made it to the final, second in that same semi in 43.02sec.