Paris Olympics: Noah Lyles Claims Men’s 100m Gold In Dramatic Final

Noah Lyles of the United States has secured gold in the men’s 100 meters in one of the closest finals of all time at the ongoing Paris 2024 Olympics.

The 27-year-old sprinter from Virginia, who pocketed his first Olympic gold medal on Sunday, is the first American to win the event since 2004.

It was an extraordinary men’s 100m final that came down to a photo-finish and five thousandths of a second.

That was the margin between the self-described showman who thrives on a large audience and the Jamaican Kishane Thompson, who both crossed the line in 9.79 seconds.

After a long wait, and plenty of racing hearts, Lyles was declared the winner with 9.79 (.784) seconds. His time was just quicker than Jamaica’s Kishane who earned silver with 9.79 (.789) seconds.

Both sprinters had waited nervously at the finish line, watching the scoreboard for results. Lyles froze when it showed he had prevailed by one of the narrowest margins — five-thousandths of a second.

Another American, Fred Kerley, took home the bronze in 9.81 seconds, with the South African Akani Simbine in fourth place.

When Lyles won the world 200m title in 2022, he set his sights on a daring new goal: becoming a global star and influencer. It sounded like a preposterous dream. But then he won three gold medals at the 2023 world championships in Budapest and, with the Netflix cameras and boom mics in tow, he also emerged as the co-star of the docu-series Sprint. Now, after this, everything is on the table for him.

Lyles had been last after 15 metres, his start less explosive than his main rivals. But over the last few metres he closed on Thompson in front of him before getting the dip on the line. – With Agency reports