Croydon Harrier Martyn Rooney agonisingly missed out on a bronze medal in the men’s 400m relay at  the World Athletics Championships in Moscow on Saturday.

Him and his Team GB colleague, Conrad Williams, Michael Bingham and Nigel Levine, had to settle for fourth place with a time of three minutes, 00.88 seconds, less than a second behind host nation Russia who took bronze.

USA claimed top spot with a world leading 2:58.71 with Jamaica second in 2:59.88.

Rooney, 26, a staunch Crystal Palace fan, ran the second leg in 44.5 but it is now the fifth time he has finished fourth in the relay in a major championships - the others being the 2005 World Championships, the 2006 Commonwealth Games and the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games.

“To try and medal we need to be in the mix at the start and I bet myself to be able to beat anyone else on a relay leg, something I pride myself on,” he said.

"I think on a season where I had a couple more races in my legs I’d have been on the USA’s heels, but they got away from me early on and I had to try to chase them.

"It’s something we should have tried a bit more of in the past, it probably cost us a couple of medals and now we know it’s possible for me to run second leg we’re looking forward to the next couple of relays.”