(Sports news) Noah Lyles produced one of the fastest 200m in the history of sprinting as he dominated to retain his 200m title in a time of 19.31sec at the World Championships on Thursday, becoming the third-fastest athlete of all time over the 200m distance and subsequently leading a second American sprint podium sweep. Lyles, who won Olympic bronze in Tokyo, expelled out of the blocks and led at the halfway point before powering through the finish, with his fellow American compatriots Kenny Bednarek (19.77) and 18-year-old Erriyon Knighton (19.80) battled it out of the turn and down the straight for silver and bronze. Lyles has not been satisfied with how quickly he has been getting out of the blocks in some of his races but in this race he had the start of his life.
Lyles’s time was initially displayed as 19.32, which would have subsequently tied Johnson’s record. However, the time was updated to an official 19.31, with the 25-year-old sprinter clearly stunned when he noticed the new figure on the clock. Johnson later came and approached him to congratulate him on breaking his record. Thursday’s race was the second 1-2-3 for US men in Eugene in the men’s sprinting as Fred Kerley, Marvin Bracy and Trayvon Bromell swept the 100m earlier in the tournament. It is the first time any country has swept the two men’s sprints in the same year. It also capped a remarkable turnaround for Lyles from the Tokyo Olympics a year ago when the American men left without any individual track gold medals. Lyles' time was the third fastest time only behind Yohan Blake and Usain Bolt’s timings.
“I was telling [Knighton] and Kenny: ‘I was glad y’all was behind me because y’all put the fear of God into my start,’” said Lyles.
“After that I was like: ‘OK, I’m racing myself. Let’s go,’ which was my goal,” he said. “But I also had in the back of the head, in case he did try to pull up on me, I was going to be ready for it.”
“Today is my day – I finally got to do what I dreamed of,” he said after breaking four-time Olympic champion Michael Johnson’s US national record, which had stood since 1996. “I’ve got my whole family here.”
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