By AA Correspondent
Noah Lyles lived up to his reputation and boast. But he did so by a hair’s-breadth margin. Just five-thousandth of a second separated him and Jamaican Kishane Thompson at the finish, with both being credited 9.79s in the 100 metres final of the Olympics at the Stade de France on Sunday (Aug 4)
Till the 90-metre mark, Thompson looked the likely winner, but at the finish, Lyles lunged ahead of the Jamaican. The bare eyes could only make out there was a close finish that was impossible to call. The photo-finish and the thousandth of a fraction of a second confirmed that the American had won it, his gold in the Olympics.
As the officials took time before the electronic display showed the results, Lyles went out to Thompson to endure the suspense together as everyone turned towards the scoreboard to see who the winner was. All eight men dipped under 10.00s in the final, the first time it had happened in history.
Like it happened in the semifinals earlier on Sunday, Thompson gained the edge right after the start. Though Lyles was at the rear, by 60 metres he was catching up and by 90m he reached up to second place for the first time, race analysis showed.
Lyles took 0.84s between 80 and 90 metres while Thompson was a fraction behind at 0.85s. From 90m to 100m Lyles did 0.86s to Thompson’s 0.87s. In the end both were together, leaving the job to the photo-finish timer and experts.
Silver medallist in Tokyo, Fred Kerley, capitalized on a good start and pace up to 60 metres to grab the bronze in 9.81s, ahead of South African Akani Simbine (9.82s) and defending champion Marcell Jacobs (9.85s) of Italy.
Botswana’s Letsile Tebego, former two-time World junior champion, was sixth in a national record 9.86s, confirming once again the extra speed of the newly-laid Mondo track as well as the readiness of all the sprinters to tackle Lyles and Thompson, the two pre-Games favourites for the coveted title.
“It’s been a rollercoaster, ups and downs,” said Lyles. He said since the 100m in Paris was his first experience of the short dash in Olympics, he had preserved himself instead of blazing through the rounds which was his normal style.
“I think back in Tokyo I messed up handling the round”, the 27-year-old American said. Thee three-gold winner in the last World championships also is expected to go for the treble of 200m plus the relay and, if possible, the 4x400m if a place in that relay team could be opened up for him.
Lyles thumped his chest and gesticulated to the packed crowd in the stands that he had done what he had promised to do, come out the champion, no matter his reverse in the semifinal when Thompson easily beat him.
Thompson, the fastest man in the world this year with 9.77s PB in June, said that he was happy he completed the 100m task without an injury.
“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,” said the Jamaican tipped to be the successor to Usain Bolt.
Thompson had done the semifinal earlier in the evening in 9.80s to compatriot Oblique Sevillle’s 9.83s. Seville finished eighth and last in the final at 9.91s, perhaps having run his best too early.
Abdul Sani Brown clocks PB
Asia had something to talk about in the semifinals as Japanese Abdul Sani Brown clocked a personal best 9.96s for the fourth place in heat No. 3 of the semifinals to go out. He was overall tenth, just two places shy of what could have been a historic final for his country.
Thailand’s 18-year-old Poripol Boonson was ninth and last in his semifinal in 10.14s. He had clocked a personal best 10.06s in the semi-finals of the Asian Games last year when he was the silver medallist eventually.
There was no stopping Canadian Ethan Katzberg in the hammer throw final. Just 22, he added the Olympic gold to the World crown he had won last year.
Katzberg opened with an 84.12m, his second-best mark in a career in which he has overcome big achievers on his way to winning global titles. He did another 80.0-metre plus on his third throw but fouled four of his attempts. No one else crossed 80.0m.
Bence Halasz of Hungary, silver medallist in Tokyo, had to be satisfied with the same-coloured medal against the brilliant form of Katzberg. He achieved 79.87m on his third attempt.
Mykhaylo Kokhan of Ukraine also retained his position at third from the Tokyo Olympics with a throw of 79.39m.
Olympic champion Wojciech Nowicki of Poland was seventh with 77.42m while his team-mate Pawel Fajdek, five-time world champion with 78.80m, was fifth.
Mahuchikh wins high jump gold
There never was any doubt about Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh winning the high jump gold. She had been in such awesome form the past few seasons that the only question could have been how high she could go.
Having improved the 37-year-old world record to 2.10m in the Paris Diamond League in July, Mahuchikh was in the form of her life coming into this competition. With defending champion Mariya Lasitskene absent, it was left to Australian Nicola Olyslagers (nee McDermott) to provide the challenge to Mahuchikh as the others left the scene after 1.95m.
Two failures for Olyslagers at 2.00m meant the gold was to be that of the 22-year-old Ukrainian world champion. She cleared 2.00m on her first attempt and after dropping the bar twice at 2.02m she opted for 2.04m on her third but failed there too. By then, Olyslagers had failed thrice at that height.
Iryna Gerashchenko of Ukraine and Eleanor Patterson of Australia shared the bronze medal, both scaling 1.95m.
Chinese woman hammer thrower Wang Zheng, silver medallist in Tokyo three years ago, failed to come through the qualification round with 66.92m that placed her 28th overall.
Wang’s team-mate Zhao Jie, however, made the final with 72.49m that placed her seventh while another Chinese, Li Jiangyan (70.54m) was 13th overall, just missing progress by one slot.
Wang Jianan qualifies for long jump final
Wang Jianan, men’s long jump world champion in 2022, was third overall in qulfication with 8.12m. Olympic and World champion Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece topped with 8.32m.
Zhang Mingkun of China joined Wang finishing ninth overall with 7.92m.
To go out of the race in long jump from Asia were Yuki Hashioka of Japan (7.81m), Lin Yu-Tang of Taipei (7.70m), Shi Yuhao of China (7.68m) and Jeswin Aldrin of India (7.61m).
Photo Credit: https://www.upi.com/News_Photos/view/upi/3571870bae6c3403947dbf0620f8755a/Paris-Games-Athletics-session-6-Mens-Long-Jump/
