SAINT-DENIS, France — Noah Lyles won the Olympic 100 meters by .005 seconds Sunday, waiting some 30 seconds after the finish of one of the closest sprints in history to find out he’d beaten Kishane Thompson of Jamaica. In other track action Sunday, Blacksburg resident Cole Hocker and former Virginia Tech standout Neil Gourley advanced to Tuesday’s final of the men’s 1,500 meters.
The word “Photo” popped up on the scoreboard next to the names of Lyles, Thompson and five others after they crossed the line in the 100. Lyles, 27, paced the track with his hands draped over his head. Finally, the numbers came up.
Lyles won in 9.784 seconds to edge out Thompson by five-thousandths of a tick of the clock. Lyles said he thought he had given the win away by dipping at the line too soon, so he went up to Thompson and told him, “Bro, I think you got that one.
” “But then my name popped up and I’m like ‘Oh my gosh, amazing!’” said Lyles, who was a high school track star in Virginia when he ran for T.C. Williams High School (now known as Alexandria City High).
America’s Fred Kerley came in third at 9.81. “That’s probably one of the most beautiful races I’ve been in,” he said.
The top seven all finished within .09 of each other. This was the closest 1-2 finish in the 100 since at least Moscow in 1980 — or maybe even ever.
Back then, Britain’s Allan Wells narrowly beat Silvio Leonard in an era when the electronic timers didn’t go down into the thousan.