Akani Simbine registers fastest 100m of season, Noah Lyles superb in 150m

ATLANTA – South African Akani Simbine won the 100m in a world-leading 9.90 seconds at the Atlanta City Games on May 18, while American Noah Lyles shone in the 150m.

Running into a headwind on a makeshift track, Simbine cruised through the finish, 0.10sec ahead of Kenyan Ferdinand Omanyala, with American Kendal Williams third in 10.05sec.

Said Simbine: “I don’t think there is a target on my back now, it’s more of just going back to training and keeping on doing what I’ve been doing.”

The performance was three-hundredths of a second faster than the previous lead, set by American teenager Christian Miller in April.

The 100m and 200m world champion Lyles proved lethal in the rarely run 150m, pulling away through the second half to cross the finish in 14.41sec – a quarter of a second ahead of Britain’s Zharnel Hughes.

Lyles, a 200m bronze medallist in Tokyo, smiled widely after the finish and bowed to the fans, crediting his form to his mental health.

“I ain’t got depression. Makes a huge difference. So I’m hyped, I’m excited, I come out here – I get excited when I see the fans,” the 26-year-old said.

He has kept a busy schedule in 2024, winning the 100m at the Bermuda Grand Prix in April before travelling to the World Relays in the Bahamas earlier in May.

Lamont Marcell Jacobs has had a much different schedule, having struggled with a series of muscle problems.

The Italian on May 18 won his first 100m race in Europe in 2024 in the build-up to his Olympic title defence in Paris.

The 29-year-old, who stunned the athletics world in 2021 with two golds in the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Games, clocked a time of 10.07sec to win his race at the Sprint Festival in Rome.

He finished 0.04sec ahead of Chituru Ali in a race against five of his countrymen at the low-key event, starting sluggishly before eventually surging through to win.

“The race was OK, I’m having these errors at the start which are making me slower than I know I can be,” Jacobs told Sky Sports.

“If I’d managed to get my start going as I had during the warmup, it would have been a different race because the start is the basis from which you can reach your top speed. I was missing that, but I’m very happy with the second part of the race.”

Over at the Los Angeles Grand Prix, American Rai Benjamin won the men’s 400m hurdles in a world-leading 46.64sec on May 18 as Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone posted an impressive 200m victory.

Benjamin, the 400m hurdles Olympic silver medallist, clocked the ninth-fastest time ever, revving up expectations for a Paris Games showdown with Norway’s Karsten Warholm and Brazilian Alison dos Santos – who won gold and bronze respectively in a scintillating Tokyo Olympics final.

McLaughlin-Levrone, world record holder and Olympic champion in the women’s 400m hurdles, clocked a personal best 22.07sec to win the 200m, the second-fastest time in the world in 2024. REUTERS, AFP