Grapevine

Noah Lyles wins 100m gold by five thousandths of a second

In a blanket finish Lyles believed he had left it too late to catch the powerful Kishane Thompson, but the giant screen confirmed him as the winner in a personal best 9.79 seconds, the same time as the Jamaican, but ahead by the width of a vest.

If the race had been 99 metres, Thompson would have been celebrating a fourth Jamaican men’s 100m win in five Olympics, but fast-finishing Lyles kept his form superbly and timed his dip expertly to add Olympic gold to his world title.

He ripped his name bib from his shirt and held it aloft with his red, white and blue varnished fingernails, announcing himself, as he had always promised he would be, as the fastest man in the world.

“It’s the one I wanted, it’s the hard battle, it’s the amazing opponents,” said Lyles, the first American male Olympic 100m champion since Justin Gatlin in 2004.

“I didn’t do this against a slow field – I did this against the best of the best, on the biggest stage, with the biggest pressure.”