World champion, Olympic champion. Noah Lyles has been talking big in the run-up to Paris 2024, but tonight he backed up the bragging rights with blistering speed around the Stade de France track, outpacing the field to beat them all to the line. There can be no debate now. “What’s the Olympic champion title?” Lyles said, referring to the “fastest man on the planet” tag that comes with gold. “Amen.”
Never mind that he didn’t come close to the world record he said he would break, finishing in 9.79. Never mind that the winning margin was just five thousandths of a second, a time too miniscule to comprehend. Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson was saddled with the title of Usain Bolt’s heir after running the fastest time this year, and led for 99m of this race. But Lyles fought back from last place at 40m and they crossed the line together.
Thompson roared in celebration, but his face fell when the giant screen displayed “photo finish” next to his name. They looked up from purgatory, waiting for the verdict.
“Kishane, I think you got it, man,” Lyles told Thompson, patting him on the shoulder.
Thompson looked distressed. “Come on, man!” he shouted at the screen, urging it to move. “Come on, man!”
Lyles paced back and forth with his head in his hands. Then the results came back and Lyles was back, one moment ripping the name off his chest and raising it to the gods, the next running around the hammer field with the Stars and Stripes flapping in the wind. Thompson was awarded silver, while Lyles’s U.S. teammate Fred Kerley took bronze.
“I was prepared to see his name come up,” Lyles said. “I saw my name come up and I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m amazing.’ That’s what I wanted. It’s the uphill battle, the opponents are amazing, everyone was healthy and came to fight. I’m the wolf among wolves.”
Thompson was hoping to become the first Jamaican since Bolt to win a world title in the 100m.
“I’m a little bit disappointed, but I’m super happy and grateful at the same time,” he said. “I wasn’t patient enough with my speed and with myself, I should have let my speed carry me to the line. I learned from that. I couldn’t see Noah, but I think he could see me and he said, ‘hey Kishane, I thought you made it.’ But he was way to the right of me, so I wasn’t sure. This is my closest race. It was really close.”
The United States prides itself on its dominance in track and field, but an American has not won this race in 20 years, since Justin Gatlin in Athens. Bolt won the next three in Beijing, London and Rio before Italy’s Lamont Marcell Jacobs stunned the world in Tokyo. Jacobs finished fifth here in 9.85 seconds, behind South Africa’s Akani Simbine who was fourth in 9.82.
One by one, Lyles eliminated them.
“It was hard for me to imagine where we were, and I think that was a good thing,” he said. “I was lucky to have Oblique Seville (from Jamaica) by my side because all year he was hitting that acceleration that I wasn’t hitting. I wasn’t going to let him go.”
This could be just the beginning. Lyles still has the 200m, his strongest event, as well as a 4x100m showdown with the Jamaicans.
“There’s so much more. I hope you guys like Noah because I have so much more coming.”
from Tampopo https://ift.tt/nyvFhCU
