Noah Lyles on course for Olympic glory after 100m personal best in London

LONDON – Noah Lyles proved once again he can back up his fighting talk with strong performances on the track, after he ran a personal best to secure 100m victory in the final Diamond League race in London before the Paris Olympics.

The American, who headlines the Netflix series Sprint focusing on the top Olympic medal contenders, is full of confidence as the Games get under way this week.

“I’m going to win, it’s what I always do, I’m getting faster every week,” Lyles said on July 20 of his Olympic chances.

“I know exactly where I am ahead of Paris. I live for the biggest moments, the more eyes the better I perform. As soon as I get on the stage when the TV is on and people are watching, I perform.”

He delighted the London crowd with a trademark come-from-behind win in a personal best of 9.81 seconds – an improvement by two-hundredths of a second.

That lifted him to third fastest in the world in 2024 behind Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala (9.79sec) and Jamaican Kishane Thompson (9.77).

Lyles, who turned 27 on July 18, delivered a performance to celebrate, shooting past Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo who led early but ultimately had to settle for third place, albeit matching his personal best and national record of 9.88sec.

“That was fun,” added Lyles. “I could have had a better start. I wanted a faster time but I had the wind. After building my confidence, this has been what I prayed for and what I wanted.”

Though he admitted he could have done better, the new personal best showed his training is paying off, after he ran 9.83sec to win the US trials in Oregon just a month ago.

Lyles, who built his reputation over 200m, was the first man since Usain Bolt in 2015 to win three gold medals – 100m, 200m and 4x100m – at a single world championships, in Budapest, Hungary in August 2023.

The Netflix series cast him as “heir to the throne” of the Jamaican king of sprint, chasing Bolt’s world record of 9.58sec – although that still looks out of reach, at least for this Olympics.

While he has eyes only on gold, South Africa’s Akani Simbine, who came second with a season’s best of 9.86sec, would be delighted with any medal in Paris.

The 30-year-old managed to finish only fourth or fifth in five Olympic or world finals, with the African championships and Commonwealth Games, both in 2018, the only times he had topped the podium in an individual event.

The London Diamond League was a perfect send-off to a raft of Paris-bound athletes in front of a crowd of 58,000 at the London Stadium, the venue for the 2012 Olympics and home to English Premier League club West Ham United.

Dutchwoman Femke Bol again shone in the hurdles. In her own fine-tuning, the world champion set a new meet record of 51.30sec as she cruised to victory in the 400m hurdles.

“I am excited for Paris and of course to put on my best race there,” she said, with world record holder and Olympic champion Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone in her crosshairs.

“I am looking forward to racing Sydney – that will push us both. I will be ready for it.” REUTERS, AFP