Usain Bolt backs Jamaicans to trump US star Noah Lyles in 100m at world c’ships
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Legendary sprinter Usain Bolt speaking during a press conference in Tokyo on Sept 11, ahead of the start of the World Athletics Championships.
PHOTO: AFP
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TOKYO – Jamaican sprint legend Usain Bolt has backed either Kishane Thompson or Oblique Seville to beat defending champion Noah Lyles in the 100m at the World Championships in Tokyo.
Bolt is an 11-gold world champion, having won consecutive world 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay golds from 2009 to 2015 – with the exception of a 100m false start in 2011.
The now 39-year-old retired after the 2017 worlds in London, where he claimed a final bronze in the 100m won by US rival Justin Gatlin.
Gatlin, Christian Coleman, Fred Kerley and Lyles have all triumphed for the United States in the blue riband event over the last four World Championships.
However, Bolt insisted on Sept 11 that would change in Tokyo and Jamaica could look forward to a first world sprint title since 2015.
“Kishane and Oblique have really shown this season that they’re really doing extremely well,” he said.
“They should be 1-2 at least because they have proven throughout the season that they are at the top and they’re running fast times. So it’s just all about execution.”
Thompson, who won 100m silver at the 2024 Paris Olympics just 0.005sec behind Lyles, has set a world-leading 9.75sec this season, while Seville – fourth in the 100m in the last two world meets – has twice beaten Lyles over 100m in 2025.
Bolt, who also has eight Olympic golds, added: “I’m happy to go to the stadium and see. Hopefully, I’ll be able to present the gold to one of them!”
Bolt, known for his calm and cool approach to the high-intensity world of track sprinting, recommended that Thompson and Seville “just not listen to the noise”.
“It’s just about one of them executing and it should be fine,” he said. “I’m very confident that they can get it done.”
He was also in confident mood that his 100m world record of 9.58sec, set at the 2009 Berlin worlds, was not going to be troubled any time soon.
“No, I’m not worried,” he said. “There will be athletes coming up, and they will do well, but at this present moment I don’t see anything that they can do to break a world record, so I’m not worried.
“But everything evolves in life. It’s not going to be a surprise if it actually happens. We just have to wait and see what happens.”
If someone were to break the record, the Jamaican believes that he could actually be the one who does it, saying that he could have run 9.42 in the carbon-plated “super-spikes” worn by sprinters today.
Research by Puma, the company that shod him through his glorious era of dominance, predicted that Bolt would run 9.42 in today’s shoes and he said: “I fully agree.
“Someone who continued after I retired was Shelly-Anne Fraser-Pryce and I saw what she did – she got faster with the spikes.
“I probably would have run way faster if I’d continued and if I knew that spikes would have got to that level maybe I would have, because it would have been great to compete at that level and running that fast.” AFP, REUTERS
