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Record breakers

Ashleigh Nelson, Jodie Williams, Asha Philip and Desiree Henry celebrate their 4x100m victory at the European Championships © Getty Images

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The British women's sprint relay team recently broke a record. Which one? asked Sally King

It was the British record, and it's actually been broken twice in the last few weeks after standing for the previous 34 years.

First the British quartet of Ashleigh Nelson, Asha Philip, Jodie Williams and Desiree Henry clocked 42.24, a new national record, in winning the European Championship gold medal in Zurich in mid-August.

Then, 11 days later, Nelson, Philip, Anyika Onuora and Henry shaved three-hundredths of a second off that time, with 42.21 seconds to win at the Weltklasse event in the same stadium in Zurich. The world champions (Jamaica) came in second, with the Olympic champions (United States) third.

The old record of 42.43 seconds was set in at the 1980 Moscow Olympics by Britain's bronze-medal team of Heather Hunte, Kathy Smallwood, Beverley Goddard and Sonia Lannaman.

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