Julius Okorie
It was warlike situation Saturday night as the 100m men’s took place in Paris with America’s Noah Lyles snatching gold in a too close to call encounter with Jamaica’s Thompson who also finished 9.79s while Bronze medalist F. Kerley finished 9.81 at the Stade de France.
The nine contestants had qualified with all of them running below 10s. Defending Champion Jacobs though finished but was effectively dethroned. He had his left leg bandaged afterwards.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelLyles 27, finished in the dash five-thousandths of a second, faster than Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson, with the duo crossing the line almost simultaneously.
There was a nervous wait as Olympic officials looked over the footage, with Lyles and Thompson both registering a time of 9.79s.
However, the American superstar started celebrating his triumph when he was proclaimed the champion by 0.005 seconds, also notching a personal best.
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“It’s the one I wanted,” said Lyles. “It’s the hard battle, it’s the amazing opponents.
“Everybody’s healthy, everybody came prepared for the fight and I wanted to prove that I’m the man amongst all of them. I’m the wolf amongst wolves.”
Fred Kerley from the United States won bronze with a season best time of 9.81, one-hundredth of a second ahead of South Africa’s Akani Simbine. It marked the first time in history that eight men broke ten seconds in a wind-legal race.
Lyles has by his achievement tonight, became the first American, male or female, to win the event since Justin Gatlin at the 2004 Athens Games.
Julius Okorie is Chief Sports and Entertainment Correspondent for Prime Business Africa. He began his journalism career with the Champion Newspaper and Sporting Champion and later moved on to Daily Independent and the Nation Newspapers. Okorie joined Prime Business Africa in 2024 bringing on board 20 years of experience in writing investigative news on Sports and Entertainment. His well researched and highly informative articles on Sports Business and general entertainment are followed by a wide range of audience.
