Noah Lyles surprisingly failed to win his 200m semifinal - but it could be all part of his plan to win gold at the Paris Olympics once again.
Lyles won his Round 1 heat in the event, giving him good momentum entering the semifinal on Wednesday. However, the 100m champion finished second in his 200m semifinal with a time of 20.08 seconds - behind Letsile Tebogo’s time of 19.96 seconds.
Regardless, he received an automatic qualification for the final. It also must be noted that Lyles failed to win both his Round 1 race and his semifinal before winning the athletics banner event.
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The loss to Tebogo meant that Lyles was not the victor in a 200m race for the first time in 26 events. But two-time world 110m hurdles champion Colin Jackson believes the Team USA star is simply employing the same tactic that brought him glory over 100m.
“Noah Lyles was just putting the pressure Tebogo on as he came out of the bend and then just realized, am I going to go into a battle?” Jackson said on BBC Sport. “In the 100m semi-finals when he raced Seville he didn't really push then did he? And he shone in the final when it really mattered. Is he playing the same game here?”
London 2012 Olympic heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis-Hill added: “It is hard to predict what Noah Lyles is going to do at major championships but he has that unwavering belief in himself. Confidence isn't a strong enough word for Lyles, we need to invent a new way to describe the way he conducts himself and feels about his talent. He has got the hunger and unbelievable drive to push in that latter part of finals when it really matters.”
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At the Stade de France on Sunday night, the charismatic Lyles clocked a personal-best 9.784-second time to come out on top in a world class field - the first 100m final where each competitor ran sub-10 seconds. It meant the American secured his first Olympic gold.
It was the closest 100-meter final since at least Moscow 1980. Lyles ultimately edged the world's fastest time this year, Jamaica's Kishane Thompson, by 0.005 of a second to become Olympic champion. Lyles is one of the headline names in track and field action. He is one of the most dominant male sprinters since Usain Bolt, barely losing a race over 200m for most of the past decade.
However, he failed to win 200m gold in Tokyo, finishing third behind champion Andre De Grasse of Canada and compatriot Kenny Bednarek. He will look to claim revenge and add a second gold against Tebogo, Bednarek, and the field in the final on Thursday, August 8.
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