Britain's Mark Lewis-Francis beat America's Maurice Greene on the final leg to win the gold medal in the men's 4x100m relay at the Olympic Games on Saturday.

The team of Jason Gardener, Darren Campbell, Marlon Devonish and Lewis-Francis were flawless with their baton passes and narrowly beat the United States.

Britain clocked 38.07 seconds with America one hundreth of a second behind. Nigeria got the bronze in 38.23 seconds.

The US bid stumbled with a poor change between Justin Gatlin and Coby Miller.

Gatlin, the 100m champion, took over from 200m gold medalist Shawn Crawford but fumbled his handover to Miller leaving Britain ahead with one runner left.

Lewis-Francis, who failed to reach the final in the individual 100m, put in a sensational effort to stay ahead of the fast- finishing Greene, the 100m bronze medallist and former Olympic champion.

Jason Gardener of Britain, who ran the first leg, said, "We work as a team. We race together and we believe in ourselves. It' s all about our team spirit. That's what makes us unique, and that 's what helped us win."

Lewis-Francis said he was confident to win a race against former men's 100m world record holder Greene.

"I wasn't worried about Greene on my shoulder. When I got the baton I was confident that I could bring it home. We worked together as a team and we won as a team.

"I'm an Olympic champion and I'm going home with a smile on my face."

Greene, who won the bronze in the 100m, said, "We came here and put a lot of pressure on ourselves. But that's what the Olympics are all about. I hope we pleased the fans and I hope we didn't let anybody down. If we did, I apologise.

"I almost caught him in the end but almost isn't good enough."

It is the first British Olympic relay gold medal since 1912.

Britain took silver behind the United States in the 2003 world championships but were later stripped of their medals when Dwain Chambers failed a drugs test.

America have won the relay 15 of the 20 times it has been run but have failed to win in three of the last five Olympics.