“Today is my day!
The smile is huge and for good reason.
Noah Lyles, already crowned world champion in 2019 in the 200m (19′'83), went much faster than on the track in Doha (Qatar).
At Hayward Field in Eugene, the American sprinter set the 4th fastest time in history over the distance last night.
He clocked 19′'31, a hundredth better than Waco's loco, Michael Johnson and his legendary half-lap at the Atlanta Olympics (19′'32).
Here he is now only 12 hundredths from Usain Bolt's world record (19′'19, in 2009 at the Berlin Worlds. Bolt had also run in 19′'30 at the Beijing Olympics in 2008) and 5 hundredths from the brand of Jamaican Johan Blake (19′'26).
“I ran so fast.
I was really hoping it would be a fast lap, but when I saw this lap, I thought,
seriously
?
“, exclaimed Lyles, who before leaving the stadium offered one of his shoes to a young American, holding up a sign with the inscription “rock, paper, scissors for your shoes?
".
The United States offers the treble
At 8:10 p.m. (5:10 a.m. in Paris) as the sun is setting in Eugene, the American anthem escapes and Noah Lyles struggles to contain his emotion.
“I did it in front of my whole family, my mother is in the stands, I'm super proud!
“explains the American.
As in the 100m, the United States won the hat-trick with, behind the Lyles rocket, Kenny Bednarek (19′'77) and the very young Erriyon Knighton (19′'80), only 18 years old.
On arrival, Noah Lyles exploded with joy, under the gaze of John Carlos, the one who on the podium of the Olympic Games in Mexico, had, with Tommie Smith, raised a gloved fist to demonstrate against the discrimination suffered by blacks in the USA.
The double world champion put one knee on the ground, signed himself before tearing off the top of his suit, while "USA - USA" escaped from the stands.
The son of Kevin Lyles, world champion in the 4 x 400 m relay in 1995, long heralded as a nugget of American sprinting, now runs the risk of shaking the Bolt lightning record.
Shericka Jackson 11 hundredths from Griffith-Joyner
Among women, the mythical 200m record of American Florence Griffith-Joyner (21′'34, in 1988) is also shaking.
The Jamaican Shericka Jackson, who became champion, achieved the 2nd fastest time of all time (21′'45), last night.
Just 11 hundredths off the American's old world record, Jackson (28) beat her compatriot Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (21'81), winner of the 100m on Sunday, and British defending champion Dina Asher -Smith (22′'02).