The United States' men's 4x400m team set a new Olympic record en route to winning gold medals at the Paris Olympics.

Rai Benjamin, who won the 400m hurdles gold, anchored the US quartet to victory, which also featured Christopher Bailey, Vernon Norwood and Bryce Deadmon.

They completed the relay in 2 minutes and 54.43 seconds for an exciting finish at the Stade de France.

Botswana, with 200m champion Letsile Tebogo on their fourth leg, took silver in an African record of 2 minutes, 54.53 seconds, while Britain claimed bronze in a European record of 2 minutes, 55.83 seconds.

The women's 4x400m gold also went to the Americans, as Shamier Little, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Gabrielle Thomas and Alexis Homes won in three minutes, 15.27 seconds, just a tenth of a second short of the world record.

The Netherlands took silver in 3 minutes 19.50 seconds, and Britain edged Ireland for bronze.

Earlier on, American sprinter Masai Russell won the women's 100m hurdles gold in another stunning photo finish.

She finished the race in 12.33 seconds, a hundredth of a second ahead of France's Cyrena Samba-Mayela, who got her country's first track medal.

Defending Olympic champion, Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico, got bronze in 12.36 seconds.

Kenya's Emmanuel Wanyonyi ran the third-fastest time in history to win men's 800m, clocking a personal best one minute and 41.19 seconds, just barely ahead of Canada's world champion Marco Arop, who got silver. Algeria's Djamel Sedjati had the bronze.

New Zealand's Hamish Kerr became the first athlete from his country to win a high jump medal, taking gold after winning a jump-off with American Shelby McEwen.

Both men had cleared 2.36m, and decided they didn't want to share the top spot on the podium.

The bronze went to Mutaz Barshim from Qatar, a joint-gold medallist at the Tokyo Games.

In women's javelin, Japan's Haruka Kitaguchi sealed the gold medal with her opening throw, a season best effort of 65.80m.

Ethiopia's Faith Kipyegon broke her own Olympic record to win gold in women's 1,500m, finishing the race in 3 minutes 51.29 seconds, more than two seconds faster than her previous mark. She also became the first woman to win three consecutive Olympic 1,500m golds with another superb display of middle distance running.

And Norway's Jakob Ingebrigtsen middle distance star won gold in men's 5,000m, finishing the race in 13 minutes and 13.66 seconds. (Agencies)