The Chinese team poses for a photo after men's 4x100m relay final at Tokyo Olympics, Aug 6, 2021. From left: Wu Zhiqiang, Su Bingtian, Xie Zhenye, Tang Xingqiang. [Photo/Xinhua]

The International Olympic Committee announced Thursday that Team China is the bronze winner of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic men's 4X100m relay race after previous silver medalist Britain was disqualified.

According to the IOC, the following six options for receiving their medals are proposed to each athlete: the next Olympic Games (for reallocations from Pyeongchang 2018 onwards), the Youth Olympic Games, the IOC headquarters or Olympic Museum, at a National Olympic Committee function, at an International Federation event or function, or at a private ceremony.

Once their decision is confirmed, the IOC works with the National Olympic Committees of each athlete with the aim of completing the ceremony within 12 months, unless the athlete chooses to have the reallocation at the next Olympic Games.

Chinese quartet of Su Bingtian, Xie Zhenye, Tang Xingqiang and Wu Zhiqiang finished fourth after clocking a national record of 37.79 seconds in the 4x100m relay final at the Tokyo Games on Aug 6, narrowly missing out on the podium initially dominated by the gold-winning Italian team, runner-up Great Britain and third-place winner Canada.

However, the Court of Arbitration for Sport issued a ruling on Feb 18 that Team Great Britain had been stripped of its silver medal after a hearing found that the team's first-leg runner, Chijindu Ujah, had violated anti-doping regulations. This resulted in the upgrade of Canada and China to silver and bronze medals, respectively.

It was the first Olympic medal won by China in a relay event and the second overall in a sprint event after retired track star Liu Xiang's gold medal finish in the men's 110m hurdles at the 2004 Games in Athens.

The bronze will increase the Chinese delegation's medal tally from the Tokyo Games to 89－38 gold medals, 32 silver and 19 bronze.