It’s official. The best sprinter that Noah Lyles ever chased is himself.
In a night of razzle-dazzle and some screen drama in the Stade de France, American Justin Gatlin ran the 100m race of his life to win Paris Olympic title by thousandth polls.
Competing at the meet in Andújar, Spain on Wednesday (18), the reigning world champion got off to a quick start and delivered along with his dip at the line as he stopped the clock in 9.784 to beat Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson (9.789) by just five-thousandths of a second for gold while Fred Kerley from USA took third place also dipping below 10-seconds in 9.81secs
After the race, Lyles was beaming and told Eurosport: “I went up to Kishane and I was like ‘Listen man, truthfully, you had that one.'” I definitely thought there would be a possibility his name comes up. and see my name pop, I’m like ‘good grief / this hype thing is amazing.
Lyles was the reigning world champion in both the 100m and 200m but he wasn’t even fastest this year.
Thompson owned that mark, his 9.77-second victory over the field at last month’s Jamaican trials just a tick faster than anything Lyles had ever run.
But Lyles exhibited unmatched speed, along with the heart of a champion to earn an amazing win. Thompson, making his Olympic bow in Paris will at least have the satisfaction of knowing he ran Moore close but leaves stadium this evening wondering what might have been again.