Tag: Lyles

The United States finished the world championships in style as Noah Lyles and Melissa Jefferson-Wooden completed memorable individual weeks by helping their country to emphatic golds in both 4×100 metre relays in driving rain on Sunday.

Jefferson-Wooden became the second woman to sweep all three sprint titles at one World Athletics Championships.

The 24-year-old, who won the 100-200m double in Tokyo, helped the United States to a lead at the last exchange and Sha’Carri Richardson brought the baton home in 41.75 seconds.

Read Also: Team Nigeria top  CAA Region 2 Senior Athletics Championships

“I did what I wanted to do individually, and then came back together with my girls, my training partners, and we were all able to walk away with the gold,” said Jefferson-Gooden.

“It’s crazy to be going home with three gold medals. I added my name to the history books once again. I am right where I want to be.”

Jamaica finished second in 41.79 to send sprint queen Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, whose 2013 sweep Jefferson-Wooden emulated, into retirement with a 17th world championship medal.

“I’m grateful for the opportunity that I got once more to represent my country and to walk away with a silver medal,” said the 38-year-old, who won 10 world and three Olympic sprint titles over her glittering career.

“I’m excited to have done it with a young team that is coming up, and I’m hoping that I would have done my part to just add some inspiration or some outlook for them.”

Germany came third in 41.87 for bronze on the back of a blistering final leg from Gina Lueckenkemper to see off Britain, who finished fourth in 42.07.

In the men’s race, the final track event of what has been a fantastic nine days of action, the U.S. were slick in their handovers despite the testing conditions.

Kenny Bednarek got a gold to cheer him up after yet another silver in the 200m, but it was Lyles taking the spotlight again as he brought them home in 37.29 for his second gold after he won a fourth successive 200 following his bronze in the 100.

“We all know we are the fastest. We just had to get the baton from start to finish,” Lyles said.

“I saw the lead we had and it was a kind of a relief as everybody did such a great job. I just had to finish the race. They made it easy for me. I could not have asked for a better relay.”

Fast-finishing Canada took silver in 37.55, with the Netherlands delighted to take bronze in a national record 37.81.

With the men’s discus outstanding, due to rain delays, the U.S. sit top of the medal table with 16 gold, five silver and five bronze. Kenya are second with seven golds, while a record 50 countries have won a medal.

Noah Lyles, fresh from winning Olympic 100m gold in Paris, cruised his 200m heat at the Stade de France on Monday to keep his bid for a sprint treble alive.

Lyles, who won the 100m in a photo-finish from Jamaican Kishane Thompson in 9.79 seconds, topped his 200m heat in 20.19sec.

The triple world 200m champion had a slow start but as soon as he hit the bend he looked in total control.

The semi-finals are scheduled for tomorrow , with the final set for Thursday.

“I was up by seven. My dang body got this clock that wakes up at seven because that’s when I practise every day,” Lyles said. “So that’s when I naturally wake up. But throughout the day it’s kind of just been meandering, trying to get my body jump-started.

“I saw my physio and chiro at about 10, saw them till 12. Then I got some food, took a nap and woke up about 3.30. And here we are.”

Lyles, who will also chase gold in the 4x100m relay, said the 200m remained his “favourite race because I feel it shows all my abilities”.

“I spent years working on the 100m, but the 200 is where it’s at. This is where I get to show my speed and endurance and my top-end speed.

Read Also: Paris 2024: Minister urges brilliant Oborududu to go for wrestling gold

“This where I get to show I’m stronger than everybody else.”

Lyles’ Jamaican partner Junelle Bromfield qualified for the semi-finals of the women’s 400m, on the couple’s two-year anniversary.

“I watched it on TV while I was getting treatment,” Lyles said of Bromfield, who was a one-time training partner of Kishane Thompson, who was edged into 100m silver on Sunday by just five-thousandths of a second.

He added: “We’ve been dating for two years now – it goes by fast. I’ve got pretty big plans for celebrations. I’m trying to give her a little more time.

“Last year we kind of went on a Noah Lyles campaign and unfortunately that cut into a lot of our vacation time.”

Also going through into the 200m semis as heat winners were fellow 100m finalists Letsile Tebogo of Botswana (20.10sec) and American Kenny Bednarek (19.96).

A third American, Erriyon Knighton, a silver and bronze medallist at the past two world championships, topped another heat in 19.99sec.

Canada’s Andre de Grasse, defending champion and silver medallist at the Rio Games, also qualified, clocking 20.30sec behind Lyles.

South Africa’s 400m world record holder and gold medallist in Rio, Wayde van Niekerk, went through after finishing third in his heat, won by Liberia’s Joseph Fahnbulleh.

World champion Noah Lyles roared to victory in 9.79 seconds to claim gold in a dramatic men’s Olympic 100m final in Paris.

Lyles became the first American, male or female, to win the event since Justin Gatlin won in the 2004 Athens Games.

In a photo-finish, Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson claimed silver, just five-thousandths of a second off Lyles’ pace.

Lyles’ US teammate Fred Kerley took bronze in 9.81s, just one-hundredth ahead of South African Akani Simbine, who timed 9.82s.

Defending champion Marcell Jacobs of Italy was fifth in 9.85s, Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo sixth in 9.86s, American Kenny Bednarek seventh in 9.88s and Jamaican Oblique Seville eighth in 9.91s in an astonishing race.

Starting in lane seven, outside Seville and inside Tebogo, Lyles got off to an average start but was soon into his stride pattern.

Head tucked down through to the 40-metre mark, the American opened up, but the whole field pushed him all the way.

As Lyles dipped for the line with Thompson charging alongside him, the crowd erupted and a photo-finish was called before Lyles was confirmed as gold medallist.

There was an electric pre-race atmosphere in a 69,000-capacity Stade de France, a light show and booming bass-heavy music keeping the crowd entertained as the sprinters made the final adjustments to their starting blocks.

Read Also: Dynamic FA clinches 23/24 Jay9 league title with 55 points

The lights were then shut off, the sprinters leaving the track to remake their entrance like prize fighters in a coliseum.

Called out over the tannoy, each sprinter was individually introduced behind an image of their name above their flag.

Thompson roared, hands clenched in fists as his head rolled back. Kerley patted his heart.

Lyles bounded out like a kangaroo, bouncing 20 metres down the track. Jacobs was the definition of cool, raising both arms and calmly walking to his blocks.

Then came the moment where the sprinters set, at the starter’s beck and call.

The wait seemed interminable. The music continued, the crowd clapped in unison as if to hurry the starter, then the sprinters stood in their lanes, rocking from foot to foot and the tension was palpable.

The cameras panned one more and then it was time, the only sound that of a helicopter’s wings whirring overhead.

The shot was fired and the field moved as if one up the purple track.

The photo-finish officials examined the evidence and Lyles walked away with gold to bury the demons of the Tokyo Games where he harvested a mere 200m bronze.

Noah Lyles says he is relishing the chance to perform before a packed stadium at the Paris Olympics three years after running in eerie silence at the pandemic-hit Tokyo Games.

But the US sprint king tipped to be one of the faces of the Paris Games said Monday that his growing fame has become a problem in the Olympic Village.

Lyles, the reigning world 100m and 200m champion, is aiming to emulate his idol Usain Bolt by completing a sprint double in Paris, following a bitterly disappointing campaign in Tokyo.

Yet the charismatic American revealed that his preparations for Saturday’s opening rounds of the 100m have been disrupted by his increasing popularity, boosted recently by the Netflix documentary “Sprint”.

“I’ve become kind of popular in the village and unfortunately that has come with its own set of challenges in being able to find my own space within the village, whether that’s eating or training in the gym,” Lyles told a press conference on Monday.

The 27-year-old, who has openly talked about his struggles with mental health and depression in recent years, said he has been forced to eat meals at unusual times in order to find peace and quiet.

For now, Lyles has no plans to quit the village but he hopes in future more can be done to provide quiet areas for athletes.

Read Also: PSG to complete ‘discounted’ Osimhen’s deal Thursday

“I know some athletes like to leave the village and have their own hotels but I like to enjoy the whole Olympic event. But it has come with its own challenge of finding a safe place,” he said.

He added: “It’s been kind of hard for me to find that place. I don’t want to leave but it’s definitely something I feel like after this Olympics I’m going to have to have conversations higher up than me about it.

“I want to enjoy the Olympics but just being able to find a safe place has been a little difficult these past few days as I’m trying to prepare and dive deep into my mental state.”

Despite his apparent unease with life in the village, though, Lyles cannot wait to parade his talents before a packed house at the 69,000-capacity Stade de France – a stark contrast to Tokyo, where Covid-19 restrictions meant athletes performed in an empty stadium.

“I’m an emotional person,” Lyles said. “And when I got to the finals in Tokyo and we walked into that empty stadium and we’re all just standing behind the blocks. That’s usually the moment in my head where I’m like ‘It’s showtime!’

“And I just remember thinking ‘This is not it. This is not fun. This is not cool. This is not what I wanted.’ And it sucked.”

Lyles left Tokyo with only a bronze medal from the 200m and later broke down in tears talking to reporters when reflecting on his disappointing Olympic campaign.

But he said Monday he was confident of upgrading to gold in Paris.

“I get more excited, the bigger the crowd is,” Lyles said. “If there is no crowd that is most likely when you will see me lose.

“But the bigger the crowd the more likely I am to win and run fast and be the best me that I can be.”