Belgium were denied a hat-trick of world indoor men's 4x400m relay titles in Torun as the USA set a Championship record of 3:01.52 to pip them to the gold medal on Sunday (22).
The team nicknamed the Belgian Tornados were looking for a third consecutive title to add to their triumphs in Glasgow 2024 and Nanjing 2025. It would also have been a brilliant double relay gold, following their top spot in the inaugural mixed 4x400m event on Saturday (21).
Jonathan Sacoor and Julien Watrin returned from that quartet and were joined by Christian Iguacel and the talismanic European 400m champion Alexander Doom.
He fought hard on the final leg but came up just short in a time of 3:03.29, still a comfortable 2.7 seconds clear of bronze medallists Jamaica.
Klaver leads Dutch to silver and Spain snatch bronze
It was a similar story in the women's event as the Netherlands - without the absent Femke Broeders-Bol - were second to a strong American quartet, as Spain took bronze.
As expected, individual 400m bronze medallist Lieke Klaver got the team off to a strong start and they were ahead after the opening leg, while Myrte van der Schoot and Nina Franke then worked hard to keep the Dutch in contention.
Eveline Saalberg kicked for home but came in with a finishing time of 3:26.00, 0.19 seconds behind the American team who were brought home by Olympic relay champion and 400m hurdler Shamier Little.
Incredibly, Klaver now has 20 medals from major international championships, including nine European podiums across indoors and outdoors.
She said afterwards: "It's always hard to run the relay. We had a good team and we wanted to show what we could do. During the warm-up we saw that Nadine (Visser) and Sofie (Dokter) won medals and that gave us goosebumps and energy to run faster."
Medals for Paula Sevilla and Bianca Hervas added to their mixed relay silvers, with Ana Prieto and Rocio Arroyo completing their quartet.
Talking of double medallists, Sacoor is another runner with an impressive haul of silverware. He has 12 international medals - all in 4x400m relays. The Belgian said afterwards: "I am now taking over the Borlee legacy - the older brothers are coaching me.
"It is great to have that transition which transcends any individual," he added.
Naturally, his attention will now turn to retaining the European men's 4x400m title in Birmingham this summer.