Misfortune struck the Malaysian men's 4x100m relay team as they were disqualified in the final at the 2018 Asian Games on Thursday.

Nixson Kennedy, who replaced Haiqal Hanafi as the first runner in the line-up, failed to hand his baton over to second runner Jonathan Nyepa in the first exchange.

As a result, Malaysia were automatically disqualified as Zulfiqar Ismail and Khairul Hafiz Jantan could only stand and watch their opponents run past them.

At the end of the race, Japan (38.16s) took home the gold medal ahead of Indonesia (38.77s) and China (38.89s).

Malaysia had qualified for the final with the eighth fastest time (39.59s) on Wednesday.