American world champion Noah Lyles ran a personal best of 9.81 seconds in the 100 meters Saturday in the final Diamond League meeting before the Paris Olympics.
Lyles, one of the biggest names in the sport at the moment, delivered in the final race of the day, clipping two-hundredths off his best time in front of a sellout crowd of 60,000, easily the largest on the Diamond League circuit.
South African Akani Simbine took second in 9.86, while Letsile Tebogo of Botswana was third in 9.88 as the first five broke 10 seconds.
Lyles has emerged as one of the biggest personalities in athletics. Having taken the 100-meter world title in Budapest last year to add to three world titles, and an Olympic bronze, in the 200, he is becoming the man to beat in the blue-ribbon event.
“That was fun,” said Lyles, who was sluggish out of the blocks but supreme over the second half of the race. “I could have had a better start, but the transitions were great and coming away with a PB, this has been what I prayed for and what I wanted.”
Lyles’ previous best was the 9.83 he clocked at last year’s world championships in Budapest — where he won the 100, 200 and the 4×100 relay — and matched in the U.S. Olympic trials last month. His 9.81 was the third-fastest time in the world this year behind Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson (9.77) and Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala (9.79).
Lyles wasn’t shy about his goal at the Olympics.
“I’m going to win,” he said. “That’s what I always do.”
In the women’s 200 meters, American Gabby Thomas delivered a final surge to edge past Julien Alfred of St. Lucia in a thrilling finish. Thomas clocked 21.82 seconds, carrying Alfred to a personal best of 21.86.
Keely Hodgkinson delivered an emphatic statement that she is the woman to beat in the 800 meters in Paris when she took more than a half-second off her own British women’s record with a dominant 1:54.61 victory.
Tokyo silver medalist Hodgkinson, 22, is the favorite for Olympic gold after Athing Mu failed to qualify following a fall in the U.S. trials.
Already the only athlete to go under 1:56 this year, Hodgkinson was joined by compatriots Jemma Reekie (1:55.61) and Georgia Bell (1:56.28) in a British 1-2-3.
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