Noah Lyles maintains US dominance of 100m at World Athletics Championship
Team USA sprinters have now won the last four 100m events at the World Championships, with Botswana's Letsile Tebogo and Britain's Zharnel Hughes completing the podium at the first of the major sprint finals in Budapest
The United States continued their domination of the men's 100m at the World Athletics Championship, with Noah Lyles sprinting to a first title over the distance. Since Usain Bolt's last title in 2015, US sprinters have won the last three 100m at the World Championships, and in Budapest it was the turn of Lyles who came home in a time of 9.83 - equalling the fastest time in the world this year.
Lyles has made his name in the 200m having won gold at the 2019 and 2022 World Championships to go with bronze at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. But after a season in which the 26-year-old from Gainsville in Florida has begun to showcase his skills over the shorter distance he has now added a third career individual world title to his expanding list of achievements.
In a high quality field, featuring all five of the fastest sprinters in the world this year, Lyles had to overcome a slow start out of the blocks, before chasing down the field to emerge victorious. Botswana's Tebogo, aged just 20, claimed the silver medal by one thousandth of a second from Hughes, whose time of 9.83 seconds earlier this year had led the field going into Sunday's final.
Lyles follows Justin Gatlin in 2017, 2019 champion Christian Coleman - who finished fifth in Budapest - and Fred Kerley in 2022 in ensuring the Americans have dominated the blue riband event in athletics since the last Usain Bolt's three titles. Bolt's world record of 9.58, set at the World Championships in Berlin in 2009, remains untouched.
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Defending champion Kerley crashed out in the semifinal to continue his disappointing season. He finished third in the third and final heat, behind Oblique Seville and Letsile Tebogo but his time of 10.02 seconds was not enough for a fastest loser place, he missed out by 0.01 seconds to Kenya's Ferdinand Omanyala
Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs also failed to make it beyond the semifinals. The gold medalist from Tokyo in 2021 finished fifth in his semifinal.
Lyles will now switch his attention to completing a sprint treble over the rest of the week in Hungary. He will be favourite to add a third successive 200m crown to his title having triumphed in 2022 and 2019, while he is expected to be part of the USA quartet for the 4x100m relay
