'Flying' Australia 4x100 men's relay team breaks national record but final hopes brutally ended

Australia's 12-year drought lives on after the 4x100m men's relay team fell short of a spot in the final despite shattering the national record.

A heat dominated by talent saw the USA unsurprisingly cross first with a time of 37.74, followed by South Africa and Great Britain, who battled it out for second place.

The Aussies cut 0.05 of a second off the national record in reducing the time to 38.12, which would have seen them exit victorious in heat two.

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The three fastest teams in each heat received automatic qualification, plus the next two fastest, which meant the Aussies missed out.

The green and gold could not have given much more than they put out with Nine's commentary team elated by the result.

"The lads ran amazing," Nine's Tamsyn Lewis-Manou said.

"The four men were just brilliant."

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The record was first established in 1995 by Paul Henderson, Tim Jackson, Steve Brimacombe and Damien Marsh at the world championships.

The time was later equalled by the Aussies at London 2012 - the last time the 4x100m men's relay team made an Olympic final.

"It's a shame we didn't make the final but you can't do better than a national record," Lachlan Kennedy told Nine.

"It's not every day that you get to run an Australian record.

"To do it at the Olympics is crazy so I think we should all be really proud of ourselves," Calab Law added.

Crossing just 0.01 of a second apart, Japan and Italy snuck into the final, the latter just 0.05 ahead of Australia.

Relay anchor Jacob Despard reflected on the team's journey to Paris.

"This has been a four-year journey for some of us. We have lots of relay training during the year and we know that we can do really well in relays," Despard said.

"I wouldn't be surprised if that's the fastest time ever to miss the Olympic final.

"I think we'll walk away with our head held high. We're proud of what we did out there today."

Joshua Azzopardi added: "We've been chatting about getting the record for a few months now. The boys were flying.

"It is a shame to miss out on that final but us boys are happy."