Noah Lyles takes 100m with ‘ridiculous finish ‘- 9.86 sec

The 100m field in Shanghai’s Diamond League filled with the fastest active 100m sprinters in the world, and spectators were not disappointed as Noah Lyles produced a ‘unbelievable finish’ in a world-leading 9.86 seconds to beat his countryman Christian Coleman on Saturday .

It was Coleman, the World Championship silver medalist, who was ahead of the rest by the half way mark, with the defending Diamond League 200m champion Lyles lagging behind; but what came next took the spectators’ breath away. He surged through last 30m like a turbo-charged dynamo to take the title at the tape in a spectacular finish, rocketing past a stunned Coleman in a photo-finish that had judges checking the third decimal point of the timing before declaring the winner, as both Lyles and Coleman clocked 9.86 seconds.

Lyles’s blistering 9.86sec was the best time this year and a personal best, and lays down a marker ahead of the world championships in the autumn and the Tokyo Olympics next summer. The 21-year-old, part of a new generation of American sprinters, ducked to the line with a glance to his left to Coleman. A photo finish confirmed Lyles had won.

 

Third was South Africa’s Akani Simbine and fourth last year’s Shanghai victor, Britain’s Reece Prescod.  It is early days in the season, but Lyles and his rivals are already eyeing the Doha world championships in September while the 2020 Tokyo Games also loom.

Lyles, the 200m Diamond trophy winner last year, celebrated wildly and said: “In pre-season I’d taken a couple of losses, a couple of second places, even on my home track, so I really wanted to come out here and told my coach I wanted to do something.

“I told him that today is the day, today is the day we put it all together.”

Asked   what message his nail-biting win sent to the rest ahead of a crucial 14 months, Lyles said: “I really wanted to make sure that this year everybody knows that I’m a 100m and 200m runner, not just a 200m runner who’s kind of running the 100m.”

Hobbs wins 100M

The Women’s 100m was no different as Jamaica’s double Olympic Champion, Elaine Thompson failed to finish within first three as the USA’s young newcomer Aleia Hobbs won the coveted title in a memorable Diamond League debut, with Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare and the USA’s Jenna Prandini finishing second and third.

 

The Men’s 400m race had an unfortunate start as both the Bahamas’ Steven Gardiner and Jamaica’s Akeem Bloomfield pulled out of the race with injuries, while Botswana’s Isaac Makwala gave up midway. Fred Kerley had an easy win at the end, with the USA sealing a 1-2-3 triumph.

Teenager Sydney McLaughlin had an applaudable DiamondLleague debut as she almost caught up to defending Diamond League champion Salwa Eid Naser of Qatar with a strong finish; but once again it was Naser who came out on top clocking 50.65 seconds, while McLaughlin finished second with in a creditable 50.78 seconds.

In the Women’s Pole Vault it was the world champion Katerina Stefanidi of Greece who won the event, with her USA rival Sandi Morris failing to finish with the first three.

The Men’s Javelin Throw saw another world-leading performance as Germany’s Andreas Hofmann registered 87.55m.

Samba’s good run continues

Qatar’s Abderrahman Samba won the battle against the USA’s Rai Benjamin in the 400m hurdles, a confrontation athletics fans had eagerly awaited for nearly a year, with Samba being the second fastest and Benjamin being the fourth fastest of all time in the event. Benjamin, who led for most of the course, was overtaken by Samba at the final stretch in a strong finish as he clocked a world-leading 47.27 seconds ahead of Benjamin’s 47.80 seconds.

The Long Jump field, too, was hit by non-starters as world champion South Africa’s Luvo Manyonga withdrew from competition due to sickness during the last 24 hours. Jamaica’s Tajay Gayle won the event with a leap of 8.24m.

In the Women’s Shot Put the USA’s Chase Ealey had memorable Diamond League debut with a winning put of 19.59m, decisively beating Chinese legend and defending World Champion Lijiao Gong.

The Men’s 110m hurdle battle was won by the Olympic champion Omar McLeod of Jamaica, with Xie Wenjun of China giving him stiff competition.

 

Results

Men

100m: 1. Noah Lyles 9.86 sec, 2. Christian Coleman 9.86 sec, 3. Akani Simbine 9.95 sec

400m Hurdles: 1. Abderrahman Samba 47.27 sec, 2. Rai Benjamin 47.80 sec, 3. Thomas Barr 49.41 sec

High Jump: 1. Wang Yu 2.28m, 2. Maksim Nedasekau 2.28m, 3. Ilya Ivanyuk 2.28m

5000m: 1. Yomif Kejecha 13:04.16 sec, 2. Selemon Barega 13:04.71 sec, 3. Hagos Gebrhiwet 13:04.83 sec

Long Jump: 1. Tajay Gayle 8.24m, 2. Wang Jianan 8.16m, 3. Samaai Ruswahi 8.14m

Javelin Throw: 1. Andreas Hofmann 87.55m, 2. Cheng Chao-Tsun 87.12m, 3. Krukowski 84.51m

400m: 1. Fred Kerley 44.81 sec, 2. Michael Cherry 45.48 sec, 3. Nathan Strother 45.42 sec

110m Hurdles: 1. Omar McLeod 13.12 sec, 2. Xie Wenjun 13.17 sec, 3. Sergey Shubenkov 13.28 sec

Women

100m: 1. Aleia Hobbs 11.03 sec, 2. Blessing Okabare 11.07 sec, 3. Elaine Thompson 11.14 sec

Javelin Throw: 1. Lyu Huihui 66.89m, 2. Lina Muze 64.87m, 3. Christin Hussong 64.10m

Shot Put: 1. Chase Ealey 19.59m, 2. Lijiao Gong 19.44m, 3. Aliona Dubitskaya 18.78m

Pole Vault: 1. Katerina Stefanidi 4.72m, 2. Nikoleta Kirikapoulou 4.72m, 2. Li Ling 4.72m

400m: 1. Salwa Eid Naser 50.65 sec, 2. Sydney McLaughlin 50.78 sec, 3. Christine Botlogetswe 51.29 sec

1500m: 1. Arafi Rababe 4:01.15 sec, 2. Gudaf Tsegay 4:01.25 sec, 3. Winnie Nanyondo 4:01.39 sec

3000m St. Ch.: 1. Beatrice Chepkoech 9:04.53 sec, 2. Chepteek Chespol 9:11.10 sec, 3. Peruth Chemutai 9:17.78 sec