Lyles backs up talk with gold medal

PARIS — Noah Lyles likes to talk. He can also back up that talk as he did in the men’s 100-meter final at the Paris Olympics. The 2023 world champion in the 100 and 200 meters came within a hairline of not making the medal podium.

It would take a last-second surge and a photo finish to determine the winner in the race. It was that close.

Lyles promised fireworks in the men’s 100, and he delivered Sunday night at Stade de France with the first U.S. gold in the event since 2004, taking the title of World’s Fastest Man by .005 over Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson.

Both men clocked 9.79 in one of the closest finishes in Games history, and Lyles got the nod 9.784-9.789. Tokyo silver medalist Fred Kerley claimed bronze with a season-best 9.81, and Kenny Bednarek was seventh in 9.88 in the deepest race ever. It was also the first time since 2004 that Americans claimed two medals in the event.
 
Team USA is atop the medal table with nine, six more than any other nation, and leads the team scoring with 81, almost triple the next highest country.
 
Moving into a tie for the sixth-fastest American ever, Lyles trailed Thompson and the fast-starting Kerley through 60 meters before he started to close the gap incrementally.

Maintaining momentum better than the rest of the field, Lyles leaned at the line to pick up the first half of the sprint double, a feat he performed last year at Budapest in the World Championships. 
 
The last time the top two finishers in the 100 were given the same time was 1980 at Moscow, when Britain’s Allan Wells won over Cuba’s Silvio Leonard with both timed in 10.25. Never before have seven men dipped under 9.90 in the same race, and all eight finalists broke 10.00, also a historic first.

Photo caption: American sprinter Noah Lyles wins his 200 semifinal race easily at the 2024 U.S. Track and Field Olympic Trials on June 28, 2024. Photo credit: USATF. Source: USATF


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