EGN NEWS DESK
LONDON — Heading into the Paris Olympics, Noah Lyles has by no means been quicker.
The American world champion warmed up for the Paris Games by setting a private finest within the 100 meters at Saturday’s Diamond League meet in London, clocking 9.81 seconds to beat a powerful discipline within the final main meet earlier than the Olympics.
Lyles trailed his rivals firstly earlier than powering previous the sphere over the past 50 meters. Akani Simbine of South Africa was second in 9.86 and Letsile Tebogo of Botswana was third in 9.88, with the highest 5 finishers all breaking the 10-second mark.
“I might have had a greater begin. I’ve been having rather a lot higher begins in follow,” Lyles mentioned. “I wished to drop beneath 9.80, however I’ll take a PR day by day of the week.”
Read More: Welcome to the Noah Lyles Olympics
Lyles’ earlier finest was the 9.83 he clocked ultimately yr’s world championships in Budapest — the place he gained the 100, 200 and the 4×100 relay — after which matched within the U.S. Olympic trials final month.
Saturday’s end result additional underlines him as the favourite for the gold medal in Paris, the place he can cement his standing because the world’s quickest man.
And Lyles is not shy about his purpose on the Olympics. “I’m going to win,” he mentioned. “That’s what I all the time do.”
Other notable outcomes on the London Stadium — which hosted the 2012 Olympics — included Matt Hudson-Smith of Britain setting a world-leading time of 43.74 within the males’s 400 and world champion Femke Bol taking the ladies’s 400 hurdles in 51.30, her second quickest time ever.
In the ladies’s 200, Gabrielle Thomas got here from behind to cross Julien Alfred and Dina Asher-Smith to win in 21.82.
