Britain's men scorched to a successful defence of their 4x100metres relay title in the European Championships in Munich on Sunday.

The quartet of Christian Malcolm, Darren Campbell, Marlon Devonish and Dwain Chambers triumphed in 38.19secs - the best time in the world this year - to give Britain a sixth gold of the championships.

Ukraine were second in a national record of 38.53secs, with Poland third in 38.71.

The quartet shrugged off the disappointment of seeing squad members Allyn Condon and Jason Gardener leave the team base on Saturday after not being picked for the heats.

That left the team management to draft in 110m hurdler Tony Jarrett as reserve just in case any of the four suffered an injury.

But there were no problems as Chambers, with the 100m title already in the bag, brought them home to a comfortable victory and the fastest time by a British quartet for three years.

It also banished the memories of last year's World Championships in Edmonton and the 2000 Olympics when mistakes in the heats meant they failed to qualify for finals when they would have expected to be among the medals.

"We have all grown up together over the last few years and although we have not had enough time to practice as we would have liked I thought our baton changing was extremely good.

"The few outings we have had have given us the chance to have trial and errors. We went out there and laced them.

"I had such a big lead it was embarrassing. I didn't want to take the mickey out of my rivals but I wanted the rest of the team to see me pulling my weight so I went as quickly as I could.

"After what happened to me in the Commonwealth Games, the two medals here have put my season right back on course.

"The British team have performed exceptionally well and now we have to step upwards in the same manner."

Of the decision of Condon and Gardener to leave early, Chambers added: "It is difficult for me to comment about it.

"Both of them are good enough to be in the team and I know it was a hard decision when they did not get picked. It is a bit hard but as I say it is difficult

Malcolm said: "Everyone is always commenting on our baton changing but today I think we got it fairly well together.

"I don't think as a team we need fear anybody else in the world and I include the Americans in that.

Campbell said: "With my injuries I have been a bit jealous of the lads this year because they have already been on the podium.

"We have spent lots of time training together and because it was the other two went home we had Tony Jarrett warming up with us.

"It is still a bit emotional. It has been a great season for me and today has been a great ending.

Devonish said: "We were all very confident and we were very lucky to have our four fastest athletes out there. There has been plenty of spirit in the team."