DELHI, India:

Gold was the target, but silver was the reality for the men's 4x100m relay team last night inside the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium as the quartet, while failing to retain the title won in Melbourne, Australia, at the last Commonwealth Games, did manage to end the athletic involvement on a high, securing the island's seventh medal.

One hundred-metre champion Lerone Clarke, Lansford Spence, Rasheed Dwyer and Remaldo Rose clocked 38.79 seconds to finish behind England, 38.74, and in front of India, 38.89.

In fact, anchorman Rose must be kicking himself after giving up a five-metre lead, failing to hold off 100m silver medallist Mark Lewis-Francis who finished in a rush to pip the former Camper-down sprinter with little track to spare.

Clarke, though disappointed not to pick up his second gold medal of the Games, expressed satisfaction with the outcome and believes everyone gave a great effort.

"I'm very impressed with the way that the team ran out here tonight, we could have won it and I wish we had but such is life, we give thanks nonetheless and we are satisfied," said Clarke.

Dwyer was quick over his leg and like Clarke, for the most part, is pleased with the way things turned out.

"It was a good race overall I think we did our best. I'm happy with our performance even though we didn't win," said Dwyer.

A patched-up women's 4x100m outfit were in contention for a medal up until the point when the third and final exchange between Audria Segree and Dominique Blake, a 400m specialist who was asked to fill the spot due to the injury of Yanique Boothe, went terribly wrong. In the end the team finished fourth in 46.10 seconds.

Jamaica also finished outside of the medals in the men's 4x400m final, as the team of Oral Thomas, Lansford Spence, Josef Robertson and Ricardo Cunningham were disqualified.

Former Morant Bay High school jumper Wilbert Walker battled hard and posted a new personal best of 16.85m in the triple jump with his third effort, but nonetheless finished fifth behind Tosin Oke (Nigeria), 17.16m, Schlick Mamba (Came-roon), 17.14m, Renjith Maheswary, 17.07m.

England's Nathan Douglas was fourth with 16.96m. The other Jamaican in the event, Nicholas Thomas, could only manage 15.32m and finished in 10th spot.