Lewis-Francis gets bronze as France win (Getty)

Great Britain won their first medal of the World Championships tonight when the men's 4x100metres relay team claimed bronze.

Jason Gardener, Marlon Devonish, Christian Malcolm and Mark Lewis-Francis finished 0.01 seconds ahead of Jamaica in 38.27secs, with France (38.08) claiming gold and Trinidad and Tobago silver (38.1).

It was small consolation for the British team who have endured a miserable performance in Finland and again came from their 4x100m relay team, who won Olympic gold in Athens last year - although Malcolm has replaced Darren Campbell in the line-up since then.

It was the first time in the history of the championships that France have won the coveted gold medal in the event.

With the United States not defending their title after dropping the baton on the first leg of their qualifier last night, the race was wide open.

There was little between the leading sides until the final handover when a slick changeover between Eddy De Lepine and Lueyi Dovy saw the French power into a metre lead, while Britain, Jamaica and Australia fought a thrilling battle for third place.

Lewis-Francis, who ran the anchor leg and held on for the bronze, was relieved Britain had finally broken their medal duck in Helsinki.

"My leg started to cramp near the end of the race but we've got our first medal and I'm just happy with that," he told BBC1.

"I've struggled through my individual (event) but we've still come through and got a medal."

Gardener, who ran a solid first leg, said: "That's my job. That why I run at number one. I did the best I could and we had a really good changeover.

"Under the circumstances I think we've done very well. I'm very pleased to get on the rostrum though it's not the colour we went out for."

Devonish, who ran the second leg and handed over to Malcolm, was relieved Britain finally had a medal to savour, saying: "It was our first one (medal) at the championships so we've got to take that."

Malcolm revealed that, like Lewis-Francis, he had also been troubled by cramps during his third leg run.

He said: "I did have a problem myself on the bend. It wasn't a good bend. I had little cramps but I did my best."