US sprint star Sha'Carri Richardson struck gold with a relay rescue act as Belgium's Nafissatou Thiam sealed her place in the pantheon of Olympic greats with a third consecutive heptathlon title on Friday.

Another spellbinding night of athletics action at the Stade de France saw the United States add to their gold medal tally thanks to a stunning last leg from sprint star Richardson in the women's 4x100m relay.

The US's highly fancied men's relay quartet however finished empty-handed after a disastrous performance saw them disqualified, with Canada storming to a memorable victory.

In the women's 10,000m, Kenya's Beatrice Chebet completed a long distance double with her second gold medal of the games, four days after triumphing in the 5,000m.

It was a masterful performance from the diminutive East African known as the "smiling assassin", who timed her finish to perfection to scamper home in 30minutes 43.25 seconds, ahead of Italy's Nadia Battocletti (silver) and Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands.

The women's shot put saw Germany's Yemisi Ogunleye snatch a dramatic gold medal with her final attempt, a last-ditch heave of 20.00m taking her past New Zealand's Maddison-Lee Wesche, who threw 19.86m. China's Song Jiayuan won bronze.

In the men's triple jump, Spain's Jordan Diaz won gold with a jump of 17.86m, with Portugal's Pedro Pichardo taking silver and Andy Diaz of Italy claiming bronze.

There were golds too for the Dominican Republic's Mari Marileidy Paulino in the women's 400m, while the men's 400m hurdles saw the United States add to their gold tally with Rai Benjamin outfoxing Norway's Karsten Warholm to claim gold. (AFP)