USA's Noah Lyles celebrates after winning the Men's 100m event during the IAAF Diamond League athletics meeting at the London stadium in London on Saturday, July 20, 2024. - AFP
LONDON (AFP): Noah Lyles set himself up perfectly for the Paris Olympics by haring to a personal best in winning the 100m at Saturday's Diamond League meeting.
In the last sprint before the Olympics, Lyles was quick out of his blocks and tore down the track at London Stadium to win in 9.81 seconds.
Once the American, who won the 100-200m golds at the Budapest world championships last year, got going, there was no doubt he would win.
South African Akani Simbine timed a season's best of 9.85sec in second, while Botswana's Letsile Tebogo rounded out the podium in 9.88sec to match his own national record.
British champion Louie Hinchliffe, the winner of this season's NCAA championships, was fourth in 9.97sec, while Zharnel Hughes had to be content with sixth (10.00) behind Jamaica's Ackeem Blake (9.97).
Hughes, who won bronze behind Lyles in Hungary, co-stars alongside the American in the Netflix docu-series "Sprint", but said pre-race that he hadn't realised how much his US rival talked about him.
Hughes had vowed to silence Lyles' "loose mouth", but was never in contention as the American ripped away for victory in front of 58,000 fans at the stadium used for the 2012 Olympics and now home to Premier League club West Ham United. - AFP
