Great Britain finally secured their first medal of the World Championships when the 4x100 metres squad claimed the bronze in Helsinki on Saturday night.

The British quartet of Jason Gardener, Marlon Devonish, Christian Malcolm and Mark Lewis-Francis edged out Jamaica and Australia to finish in 38.27 seconds behind France and Trinidad and Tobago.

There was to be no repeat of the gold medal won by Darren Campbell (missing here through injury), Gardener, Devonish and Lewis-Francis in Athens but at least the long wait for a medal came to an end.

It also went some way to making up for the last world championships when the British four had to relinquish their silver medals following Dwain Chambers' positive test for THG.

Gardener had his customary good start and had a slick handover to Devonish who appeared on the verge of catching the French on his outside. Malcolm seemed to lose ground on the bend before handing over to Lewis-Francis with France and Trinidad and Tobago well ahead.

It was a battle for bronze with the former world junior champion holding off the Australians, who dipped early, and the fast-finishing Jamaicans, who were just one hundredth of a second behind.

Lewis-Francis, who was eliminated in the second round of the individual event following a hamstring injury, said: "We had to go out and not worry about everybody else.

"I tried my hardest to maintain it to the finish in front of [individual silver medallist] Michael Frater.

"I can still go home and have some dignity and hold my head up high."

Gardener, who missed the 100m final by one hundredth of a second, underlined how the squad had been affected by injury which had limited them to five fit runners, including rookie Craig Pickering.

"Under the circumstances you have to be realistic," said the Bath Bullet. "We went out there for gold but bronze is better than nothing.

"We have had a depleted squad so there was no choice but to send out injured athletes.

"Hopefully we can give a boost to the rest of the team."

Malcolm echoed him saying: "It's nice to get a medal - not the colour we wanted but the boys ran well and we have a good team spirit."

Devonish, meanwhile, was exhausted after competing in the 100m and 200m as well as the sprint relay.

"It's been a busy championships," said the 29-year-old. "I'm in bits. I'm happy to come away with a medal."

Jo Pavey failed to match her fifth place at last year's Olympics when she finished well adrift in 15th and last place in the 5,000m.

Pavey sat at the back from the off but when the pack started to increase the pace, the 31-year-old failed to respond and seemed increasingly heavy-legged.

Instead, the gap widened and, despite trying to overtake the runners immediately ahead, Pavey eventually finished 12 seconds behind her nearest rival in 15mins 14.37secs - 21 seconds slower than her qualifying time.

The race was won by Tirunesh Dibaba, of Ethiopia, who became the first athlete to secure the 5,000m/10,000m double.

Pavey, renowned as a gutsy, spirited competitor, said: "It is very disappointing - I just didn't feel myself.

"I've been feeling dodgy for a couple of days but thought I'd be fine. But as soon as I kicked off I just felt I couldn't run. I literally felt I couldn't keep up.

"I just wasn't competitive but was determined to finish.

"If I'd felt like that the other day I would not have qualified - it was too fast and I couldn't run. I need to speak to the medical people."