DPA
Paris
America sprinter Noah Lyles lived up to the hype when it mattered but needed a photo finish before being confirmed as the fastest man in the world with Olympic 100 metres gold on Sunday.
World champion Lyles stirred up the crowd when he entered the Stade de France and then came from behind to pip Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson by five-thousandths, with both clocking 9.79 seconds.
That was a personal best for Lyles who celebrated wildly after being confirmed as winner. It was also the first US men’s 100m gold since Justin Gatlin’s success 20 years ago in Athens.
The women’s high jump was also a very close affair, with top favourite Yaroslava Mahuchikh needing countback to beat Australia’s Nicola Olyslagers.
The third gold of the night went to Canadian world champion Ethan Katzberg in the men’s hammer throw.
Lyles delivers when it matters Lyles won a 100m, 200m and 4x100m treble at the 2019 and 2023 worlds and came to Paris with the aim of repeating it at the Olympic stage, with his popularity also soaring via the Sprint documentary film.
He was beaten in his heat and semi-final but had promised fireworks for the final.
Season leader Thompson had his usual fast start and led at the halfway mark but Lyles and the others the closed in.
Lyles pipped Thompson right at the line, and former world champion Fred Kerley got bronze two-hundredths back, gto go with Tokyo silver.
Tokyo winner Marcell Jacobs of Italy was fifth and even seventh-placed Kenneth Bednarek of the US just nine-hundredths off the top.
What they said “It’s been a rollercoaster, ups and downs. I’m usually a guy who likes to come out blazing in all my rounds, especially in the 200m.
But the 100m, it’s my first time here on the Olympic stage,” Lyles said.
“I think back to Tokyo when I messed up handling the rounds. From then on, I was like, ‘I’m never going to do that again. I’m going to handle this correctly and practise over the years’,” he said inn reference to the last Games where he had to settle for 200m bronze.
It’s accumulated to this point. You only need one. As long as that’s the last one, that’s all that matters.” Thompson said: “I wasn’t patient enough with myself to let my speed bring me at the line, in the position that I know I could have gone to, but I have learnt from it.”
Asked whether he thought the gold should have shared, he said: think the sport is too competitive, no offence to any other sport. It’s too competitive for us to share a gold medal.
“I’m feeling very good, honestly. My body language will not show it because I am not an expressive guy, but I am glad.” It will be a quick turnaround for Lyles and others as the 200m heats are scheduled for Monday night.
Mahuchikh meanwhile added Olympic gold to her Tokyo bronze and the 2023 world title but it was closer than expected for the athlete who had recently bettered the long standing world record to 2.10m at another Paris venue.
Mahuchikh and Olyslagers cleared 2.00 metres but Mahuchikh did so in her first attempt while Olyslagers needed three to get silver as at the 2022 worlds.
Two more athletes from Ukraine and Australia made the podium as Iryna Gerashchenko and 2022 world champion Eleanor Patterson shared bronze with 1.98m apiece and the same amount of jumps.
“Finally, I got this gold medal,” said Mahuckikh who gave Ukraine a second Paris gold, following the women’s sabre fencing team. The medals are to give Ukrainians some joy amid the ongoing Russian invasion.
Hammer, prelims and Monday In the hammer throw, Katzberg was in a league of his own and the only man to go beyond 80m, winninng with 84.12m from Hungary’s Bence Halasz and Mykhaylo Kokhan who got Ukraine’s third medal on the night.
In preliminary action which started in the morning, women’s 100m champion Julien Alfred of St Lucia coasted into the 200m semi-finals.
World champion Femke Bol won her 400m hurdles heat the day after giving the Netherlands mixed relay gold, with American Tokyo winner and world record holder Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone also through en route to one of the most anticipated gold medal showdowns.
British gold medal favourite Keely Hodgkinson cruised into Monday’s women’s 800m final; and compatriot world champion Josh Kerr into the 1,500m final alongside Norway’s Tokyo champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen.
The other finals Monday are the men’s pole vault with Swedish superstar Armand Duplantis, the women’s 5,000m with Kenyan great Faith Kipyegon and Dutch ace Sifan Hassan, and the women’s discus.
