Paris: World champion Noah Lyles roared to victory in 9.79sec to claim gold in a dramatic men's Olympic 100m final in Paris on Sunday. Lyles won in the closest Olympic 100m finish in modern history -- just five thousandths of a second separated him from Jamaica's Kishane Thompson who clocked the same time of 9.
79sec. It made Lyles the first American, male or female, to win the event since Justin Gatlin took gold in the 2004 Athens Games. "It's the one I wanted," said Lyles.
"It's the hard battle, it's the amazing opponents. "Everybody's healthy, everybody came prepared for the fight and I wanted to prove that I'm the man amongst all of them. I'm the wolf amongst wolves.
" Lyles' victory was only confirmed after a photo-finish. The American said of the wait for the final results: "I went up to Kishane and I was like, 'I'm going to be honest, bro, I think you had that one'. "And I was fully prepared to see his name pop up and to see my name pop up, I'm like goodness gracious.
I'm incredible." Lyles' US teammate Fred Kerley took bronze in 9.81sec, just one-hundredth ahead of South African Akani Simbine, who timed 9.
82sec. In an astonishing race, defending champion Marcell Jacobs of Italy was fifth in 9.85sec, Botswana's Letsile Tebogo sixth in 9.
86sec, American Kenny Bednarek seventh in 9.88sec and Jamaican Oblique Seville eighth in 9.91sec.
Starting in lane seven, outside Seville and inside Tebogo, Lyles got off to an average start but was soon into his stride pattern. Head tuck.