Olympic sprint champion Noah Lyles 'super excited' about racing toward world title defenses
The Paris Olympics 100-meter champion lost weeks of training to an unspecified injury in April and ran his first sub-10 seconds time this season on Saturday in Poland.
Lyles aims to build on that 9.90 dash — second by 0.03 to the fastest man in the world this year, Kishane Thompson of Jamaica — in another 100 Wednesday on the Diamond League circuit.
'I'm super excited because I'm seeing the progression,' the 28-year-old American said at a news conference in Lausanne ahead of the Athletissima meet.
Lyles will no longer face Thompson, who ran 9.75 in June, after the Olympic silver medalist opted to skip his intended Swiss entry. The lineup includes Courtney Lindsey of the United States and Jamaican Oblique Seville who have run, respectively, 9.83 and 9.82 this season.
'Everybody else has had probably eight, 10 races already,' said Lyles, who started just three 100s since his competitive season began in mid-July. 'I'm coming in in a rushed schedule.'
'Sometimes you got to step back and be excited just for that,' he said.
Lyles has automatic entries at the worlds which open Sept. 13 in Tokyo as gold medalist two years ago in the 100 and 200. He won a third title in Budapest for the U.S. in the 4x100 relay.
'This is the last two races that I'm going to have before we get (to Tokyo),' said Lyles, who is due to run a 200 in Zurich next week. That lineup likely will include Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo of Botswana.
'I know something great is going to happen,' Lyles said. 'My body is showing that it's adjusting to the speed.'
Another star attraction Wednesday is Olympic 800 champion Keely Hodgkinson, having just her second race since the gold-medal run in Paris more than one year ago.
Hodgkinson's stunning comeback race Saturday in Poland was a world-leading time this year by almost two seconds, in 1 minute, 54.74 seconds — the ninth-fastest all-time in an event where the world record was set 42 years ago.
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