By a margin of just five thousandths of a second, Noah Lyles earned the Olympic gold for which he has striven all his life – and it surely won’t be the last.
For much of the men’s 100m final at the Paris 2024 Games here in a packed Stade de France on Sunday (4), it seemed the crown would go to the powerful 23-year-old Jamaican who arrived in Paris topping the world list on 9.77, Kishane Thompson, but Lyles’ late surge saw him claim the title after both clocked 9.79.
Earlier, Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh, who raised the women’s high jump world record to 2.10m when she last visited Paris in July, found the French capital to be a happy hunting ground once more as she added an Olympic gold to the bronze she won three years ago in Tokyo.
And Canada’s 22-year-old world champion in the men’s hammer, Ethan Katzberg, added Olympic gold with the second-best throw ever seen at the Games, 84.12m.
Lyles – whose forte remains the 200m – finished in fluid style for a personal best as his rival appeared to tighten within sight of glory.
After a tense period of waiting, the statistics confirmed that the 27-year-old US sprinter had taken the prize, with respective figures of 9.784 to 9.789, thus adding a gold to the 200m bronze he earned at the Tokyo 2020 Games – something that has appeared more like a torment to him since.
Now the showman who walks the walk as well as talking the talk will switch his attention to the challenge for further gold in the 200m, 4x100m and, perhaps, 4x400m.
Bronze went to Lyles’s compatriot Fred Kerley, the silver medallist in Tokyo and 2022 world champion, in 9.81, and the trash-talking of the past was forgotten as they sportingly acknowledged each other.
Akani Simbine, running in his third successive Olympic final, was fourth in a South African record of 9.82. Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo also set a national record of 9.86 in sixth place.
Jamaica’s Oblique Seville, whose semi-final win in personal best of 9.81 had promised much, delivered less as he finished eighth in 9.91.
Seville had made his case earlier in the evening while still finding time to look round – obliquely – towards Lyles, who crossed in 9.83, 0.02 off his personal best. Lyles walked away looking a little less ebullient than he had before the start. Looking up into the stand, he nodded to someone as if acknowledging something.
As for Thompson – the way he moved clear of Lyles’s teammate Kerley to win his heat in 9.80 appeared ominous…
Mahuchikh will leave Paris with more fond memories after adding the Olympic title to the world gold she earned last year.
She needed only a comparatively conservative clearance of 2.00m to secure her place at the pinnacle of the sport, beating Australia’s ever combative Nicola Olyslagers on countback after the latter had cleared the same height at her third attempt.
Olyslagers could do no more to keep the competition going, however, and after failing twice herself at 2.02m the Ukrainian gave herself one attempt to win with a greater height but failed at 2.04m.
Not that it dimmed her joy on a night when the Ukrainian flag was also waved in triumph by her teammate Iryna Gerashchenko, who shared bronze after clearing 1.95m with an identical record to Australia’s 2022 world champion Eleanor Patterson.
Katzberg, whose long hair and moustache appears a throwback to the Seventies, re-established himself in the Eighties tonight as he produced his 84.12m, just shy of his world lead of 84.38m, in the first round.
Nobody could get anywhere near it – apart from Katzberg himself, who threw a third-round 82.28m before producing three successive fouls.
Bence Halasz, who earned bronze at last year’s home World Championships in Budapest, earned silver with a best of 79.97m, overtaking the mark of 79.39m that eventually earned Ukraine’s Mykhaylo Kokhan bronze.
For the Hungarian, who turned 27 today, it was a very nice birthday present.
The preview to the hugely anticipated meeting in Tuesday’s men’s 1500m final between defending champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen and the Briton who beat him to the world title last summer, Josh Kerr, took place – conveniently – in tonight’s opening semifinal.
Ingebrigtsen led virtually from the start, Kerr – inscrutable behind his habitual shades – tracked him all the way. The Norwegian glanced over a couple of times as he eased over the line first in 3:32.38, but the Briton did not react, did not give anything away, as he crossed a fraction behind in 3:32.46. Game on.
Cole Hocker of the United States was only a stride away from the jousting giants, clocking 3:32.54, and his compatriots Yared Nuguse and Hobbs Kessler finished 1-2 in the second semi in, respectively 3:31.72 and 3:31.97, with Britain’s Neil Gourley running a smart and tidy race for third in a season’s best of 3:32.22, followed home by 19-year-old Niels Laros of the Netherlands and Kenya’s 2019 world champion Timothy Cheruiyot.
Keely Hodgkinson did everything right to qualify for tomorrow’s women’s 800m final, where she will attempt to improve one place upon her silver-medal showing at the Tokyo Games. The 22-year-old, who also has two silver medals from the World Championships, dominated her semifinal from start to finish, moving clear to make her point, closing down to save her energy and registering the fastest time of the night – 1:56.86.
Kenya’s Mary Maraa, who beat her to the 2023 world title, won her opening semifinal in 1:57.86 from Ethiopia’s Worknesh Mesele (1:58.06). Tsige Duguma of Ethiopia, who won her semi in a personal best of 1:57.47, and South Africa’s Prudence Sekgodiso will also be clear medal challengers.
Michael Norman, the 2022 world champion, topped qualifying for Tuesday’s men’s 400m semifinals with a season’s best of 44.10, while the man who beat him to first place at the US Trials, world bronze medallist Quincy Hall, was second fastest in 44.28.
Sadly the lane in Hall’s heat that should have contained defending champion Steven Gardiner was empty as the Bahamian, who has had injury problems within the past year but who had arrived in Paris with a season’s best of 44.39, did not start.
Britain’s Matthew Hudson-Smith, who set the European record of 43.74 in June, won his heat in 44.78, while Zambia’s Muzala Saumkonga, who beat him to the Commonwealth title near his home patch at Birmingham in 2022, won his race in 44.56.
Mike Rowbottom for World Athletics
