BUDAPEST, Hungary, 20 Aug: Noah Lyles captured the 100-meter world championship Sunday, finishing in 9.83 seconds for a victory that reshuffled the deck for next year\u2019s Olympics and cements him as the world\u2019s No. 1 sprinter.
\nIt was a victory that maybe only he and those close to him saw coming. The 200-meter specialist, who will defend his title in that event later this week, barely qualified for the shorter race after battling with COVID in the leadup to U.S. nationals last month.
\nMore recently, he posted on social media that he could run 9.65 seconds, a thought that defending champion Fred Kerley scoffed at, saying if Lyles did that, he\u2019d run faster.
\nBut Kerley didn\u2019t make it out of the semifinal round and Lyles\u2019 closest competition in the final came from Letsile Tebogo, a 20-year-old from Botswana, who finished in 9.873, .001 ahead of Britain\u2019s Zharnel Hughes.
\nRunning from Lane 6, Lyles overcame a so-so start, and was running in about fourth place at the halfway mark. Everyone ahead of him was to his left, and he powered past them and through the line. His first embrace was with American teammate Christian Coleman, the 2019 champion who finished fifth.
\nAfter Lyles saw his name listed first on the scoreboard, he looked into the on-screen camera and yelled: \u201cThey said it couldn\u2019t be done. They said I wasn\u2019t the one. But thank God I am!\u201d
\nThe entire track world, outside of Kerley and a few others, might agree.
\nSome believe Lyles is the closest thing to pure star power this sport has seen since Usain Bolt called it quits in 2017, back when the sprinter from Florida was just turning into a pro.
\nSince then, Lyles has forged quite a personality.
\nHe\u2019s been unabashed about the mental-health struggles he\u2019s endured, especially in the post-COVID atmosphere of the Tokyo Olympics. He recently signed a deal for a Netflix series to take people behind the scenes of his training — the thought being that the sport, struggling for relevance in the post-Bolt era, needs more time in the limelight.
\nHis latest gambit was the posting of his goals on Instagram. The 9.65 in the 100 is still a ways away, but he has a gold medal in the event and matched Hughes for the best time in the world this year. He also listed 19.10 as an aim in the 200, which would break Bolt\u2019s record. The final in that event is set for Friday night. AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BUDAPEST, Hungary, 20 Aug: Noah Lyles captured the 100-meter world championship Sunday, finishing in 9.83 seconds for a victory that reshuffled the deck for next year\u2019s Olympics and cements him as the world\u2019s No. 1 sprinter. It was a victory that maybe only he and those close to him saw coming. The 200-meter specialist, who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-222687","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222687\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}