At 30m Noah Lyles was dead last but Team USA's track star rose like a gladiator to win gold in the greatest men's Olympic 100m final ever, writes IAN HERBERT Noah Lyles produced an extraordinary finish to win the men's 100m final Lyles won by five thousandths of a second as he claimed his first Olympic gold By Ian Herbert Published: 22:30, 4 August 2024 | Updated: 22:37, 4 August 2024 e-mail View comments He arrived in this place like a meteor, entering the arena even before his name had been called, jumping up and down the track like a man possessed. The others readied themselves and tried to still their beating hearts. Noah Lyles just twirled his arms around, whipping up the audience.
The problem with an entry like that — an entry transcending anything we had even seen from the master of theatre Usain Bolt — is the potential for hubris. Lyles has been talking himself up for so long that he had built a tower of pressure on himself, stretching up to the blue Paris sky. And for a very long time, by the standards of this race of all races, it seemed to be crashing right down on his head.
After 10 metres of this extraordinary Olympic final, he was last. After 30 metres he was last. And then, when the start which has always been his weakness was in the past, he rose like a gladiator, powering beyond two brilliant, unsuspecting Jamaicans who believed that they could restore the spirit of Bolt, to win the greatest, closest 100 metres men’s final of them all.
For 20 enormous s.