Noah Lyles after winning the men’s 200m event at the Monaco Diamond League.
Olympics and world 100m champion Noah Lyles has given reasons why he is confident of retaining his world titles despite featuring in fewer races this season.
Olympic sprint champion Noah Lyles expressed his excitement on Tuesday about his progress towards defending his 100m and 200m titles at next month’s World Athletics Championships.
The Paris Olympics 100m champion missed several weeks of training due to an unspecified injury in April. He clocked his first sub-10-second time this season on Saturday in Poland, running 9.90, just 0.03 seconds behind the world’s fastest time this year, set by Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson.
Lyles aims to improve on that performance in another 100m race on Wednesday in the Diamond League. “I’m super excited because I’m seeing the progression,” the 28-year-old American stated at a pre-meet press conference in Lausanne.
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Thompson, who ran 9.75 in June, has withdrawn from the Lausanne meet, meaning Lyles will not face him. The lineup still includes Courtney Lindsey of the United States and Jamaica’s Oblique Seville, who have run 9.83 and 9.82 respectively this season.
Noah Lyles worked his way to the top to become the world’s fastest man
“Everybody else has had probably eight, 10 races already,” Lyles commented as per the Associated Press, having only competed in three 100m races since mid-July. “I’m coming in on a rushed schedule. Sometimes you got to step back and be excited just for that.”
As the reigning champion in both the 100m and 200m, Lyles has automatic qualification for the World Championships, which begin on September 13th in Tokyo. He also won a third title in Budapest as part of the US 4x100m relay team.
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Lyles is scheduled to run the 200m in Zurich next week, likely against Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo of Botswana. “This is the last two races that I’m going to have before we get to Tokyo,” he said. “I know something great is going to happen. My body is showing that it’s adjusting to the speed.”
Another highlight of Wednesday’s meet is the return of Olympic 800m champion Keely Hodgkinson, competing in just her second race since winning gold in Paris over a year ago. Hodgkinson’s impressive comeback race in Poland on Saturday saw her clock a world-leading time of 1:54.74, the ninth-fastest time ever in the event.
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