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Olympics: Noah Lyles wins men's 100m final

August 4, 2024

Noah Lyles won the 100-meter final in 9.79 seconds to claim gold in Paris. It was one of the most competitive finals of all time, with the American winning the race in a photo finish over Jamaica's Kishane Thompson.

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Noah Lyles of United States celebrates after winning gold, holding up the US flag
Lyles celebrated wildly when it became clear that he had won the goldImage: Phil Noble/REUTERS

Noah Lyles of the United States claimed the gold in the Olympic 100-meter final in Paris on Sunday.

Kishane Thompson of Jamaica took silver and another American, Fred Kerley, won bronze.

Lyles is the first American to win the event since Justin Gatlin won at the 2004 Athens Games.

Noah Lyles of United States rings the bell as he celebrates after winning gold at Paris 2024
Lyles is now targeting an Olympic double with victory in the 200-meter next weekImage: Kai Pfaffenbach/REUTERS

He started slow but accelerated through the finish to beat Thompson by five-thousandths of a second, with a new personal best time of 9.79 seconds.

"It's the one I wanted, it's the hard battle, it's the amazing opponents," he said. 

Closest Olympic 100m finish in modern history

Lyles' victory was only confirmed after a photo finish, with his fellow American Kerley claiming bronze in 9.81.

That was a thousandth of a second faster than Akani Simbine of South Africa who ended fourth, setting a new national record of 9.82 seconds.

Defending champion Lamont Marcell Jacobs of Italy, heavily strapped due to injury, finished fifth in 9.85 and, such was the quality of the race, that eighth-placed Oblique Seville of Jamaica clocked 9.91 seconds, meaning all eight finalists were separated by just 0.12 of a second.

Noah Lyles of United States crosses the line to win gold ahead of silver medallist Kishane Thompson of Jamaica and bronze medallist Fred Kerley of United States
The stadium scoreboard initially flashed a photo finish for the first seven athletes.Image: Fabrizio Bensch/REUTERS

"Everybody came prepared for the fight and I wanted to prove that I'm the man among all of them, I'm the wolf among wolves," Lyles said.

It was the first time eight men have broken 10 seconds in a wind-legal 100 meters race.

lo/msh (AFP, dpa, Reuters)

Correction, August 6, 2024: An earlier version of this article misspelled the name of sprinter Akani Simbine. DW apologizes for the error.