Noah Lyles roared to victory in a sensational men’s world championships 100m in Budapest on Sunday to extend the US dominance in track and field’s blue riband event in the post-Usain Bolt era.
Lyles, who already has two world 200m titles to his name and will go for a third in the Hungarian capital, clocked 9.83sec — the fastest 100m time of the season so far — for victory at the National Athletics Centre.
“They said it couldn’t be done. They said I wasn’t the one. But I thank God I am,” bellowed Lyles after dancing around in delight when his win was confirmed on the stadium’s big screen.
Lyles only finished third in the 100m at the US trials. “I have taken a lot of losses, even in the 100m,” he said. “Going to the USA championships with Covid I got a bronze medal, but a lot of people would cut me off right there and they probably did already.
“I knew what I had to do. I came here for three golds, ticked off one, others are coming.”
Lyles, one of the sprint stars who will feature in a series currently being filmed by Netflix, added: “The 100m was the hardest one, it is out of the books.
“I will have fun with the event I love now.”
Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo, 20, claimed silver in 9.88sec in a photo finish from Anguilla-born Briton Zharnel Hughes.
Lyles’ victory represented a fourth consecutive American gold in the men’s 100m, following in the footsteps of Justin Gatlin in London in 2017, Christian Coleman in Doha two years later and Fred Kerley in Eugene last year.
Bolt won the last of his three titles in Beijing in 2015, before retiring after having to settle for bronze in London two years later.
Kerley, Jacobs absent
The final in the Hungarian capital, widely regarded as the most open in 20 years, had been further blown apart in a set of dramatic semi-finals.
Neither reigning champion Kerley nor Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs managed to make the final eight, opening the door for Lyles to stage his ambush.
In sultry conditions, with temperature of 33 degrees Celsius (91 degrees Fahrenheit), Lyles was drawn in lane six, outside Hughes, with Coleman on his left.
It was 2019 champion Coleman, who missed the Tokyo Olympics because of an 18-month suspension for missing multiple drug-testing appointments, that got the better start.
Racing low and hard out of his blocks, the American was quickly ahead of the field.
But Lyles, on his coattails, gradually reeled him in through an effective drive phase over the last 60 metres.
“Coleman always has the fast start,” Lyles said. “He had it the whole season, he was even getting better and better.
“I expected him to do what he does and if he would be the only one in front of me, it would be my race. I needed to make sure that I was accelerating, when I was at the 60m, I took the lead.”
As Coleman faded, two-time world under-20 champion Tebogo delivered the race of his life for silver.
Hughes snatched bronze by three-thousandths of a second from Jamaican Oblique Seville, with Coleman fifth in 9.92.
“All these years, all these years of lessons, tribulations, of patience, I stuck to it,” said Hughes, who is coached by legendary Jamaican Glen Mills, who helped guide Bolt to 11 world and eight Olympic gold medals.
“I had self-belief and trust in speed, my coach, and it’s all come together at last in the 100m at a world championships. I am a bronze medallist!”
Abdul Hakim Sani Brown of Japan improved on his seventh place in Eugene last year to bag sixth, while Kenya’s in-form Commonwealth champion Ferdinand Omanyala came in seventh, just ahead of a second Jamaican, Ryiem Forde.
