Noah Lyles qualifies for Olympics with electrifying 9.83sec 100m
Noah Lyles claimed victory in the 100 meters at the US Olympic track trials on Sunday – a 9.83-second sprint that secured his spot in Paris, where he has set his sights on electrifying his sport.
“This was basically the plan, and the plan is working now,” Lyles said.
Lyles came from the back half of the field and matched his best ever time in the 100 meters. He defeated 200m specialist Kenny Bednarek by 0.04 sec. Fred Kerley, the 2022 world champion, finished third and will also go to Paris. Christian Coleman, the 2019 world champion, was in the lead with about 30 meters to go but finished fourth.
Lyles is on a mission to elevate a discipline that has grown weaker since Usain Bolt left the podium just after the 2016 Olympics.
Keeping with that theme, 26-year-old Lyles showed up at Hayward Field in a neatly tailored sport coat and pants and was presented with a box containing his freshly pressed racing uniform. He wore white pearls for the race, and when he was introduced, he jumped and jumped 100 feet down the track, begging the crowd to stand up.
Snoop Dogg was in the stadium and got some of the action with Lyles’ mother, who is almost as entertaining to watch as her son. At the top of the stands, she fell to her knees after her son reeled in Kerley on his right, then Coleman and Bednarek on his left.
“Every step I took felt more powerful than the last,” Lyles said. “I thought, ‘I got this race.’ I told myself I wasn’t going to slow down.”
But he did, raising his index finger in the air just before the line and hitting his chest after he crossed it.
This is the first national 100m title for Lyles, who has three world titles in the 200m but has rethought his goals after a disappointing third-place finish at the Tokyo Games in that race. Last summer, the world saw that the work was beginning to pay off.
Lyles won the world championships in the 100 meters, 200 meters and the 4×100 meter relay in Budapest last year. His 100-meter time on a cool, still night in Eugene matched the time he ran to win worlds.
“He’s the package,” Lyles’ coach Lance Brauman said. “That doesn’t mean we don’t have to do some things to get better and keep moving forward. But he enjoys that part of it. He likes being on the track. He likes training. I mean, he loves the race. It’s just who he is.”
Lyles, who races for a spot in the 200 meters next weekend, could even be in the mix to win four medals. No 4 could make it in the 4x400m, and if he does he would be in the company of the likes of Carl Lewis and Jesse Owens.