Reuters
Source: Reuters
Kishane Thompson laid down a marker ahead of next month’s world championships when the Jamaican came out on top in the highly-anticipated 100 metres against Olympic champion Noah Lyles at the Silesia Diamond League meeting on Saturday.
Thompson blasted out of the blocks and never looked like being beaten, while Lyles, with his typically slow start, ran strongly at the end but the Jamaican won in 9.87 seconds, with Lyles clocking 9.90, his season’s best. Kenny Bednarek was third.
There were no world records but the sun-soaked crowd were treated to some fine performances, with Olympic and world champions fine-tuning before Tokyo in September.
Faith Kipyegon came agonisingly close to breaking the women’s 3,000m world record and Keely Hodgkinson made a winning return in the 800m.
The men’s sprint brought together American Lyles and Thompson for the first time since their unforgettable Olympic final last year in Paris, where Lyles beat his rival by five thousandths of a second.
Add Bednarek into the mix, who recently clashed with Lyles, and this was a race that nobody wanted to miss.
The two Americans had a heated moment at the U.S. Championships earlier this month, when Lyles stared down Bednarek coming to the line and received a shove in return at the finish.
Lyles, whose season was delayed by an ankle injury, looked unperturbed by the defeat, happily signing autographs for fans, and was pleased to have broken 10 seconds for the first time this year.
“It is a great stepping stone. I needed to see a sub-10,” Lyles said.
“I took out some really big heads today, people who run 9.7 and 9.8. The more I run, the better I am getting.”
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