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Noah Lyles fell just short of a historic sprint double at the Paris Olympics with a third-place finish in the 200 meters behind Letsile Tebogo of Botswana. Lyles’ American teammate Kenny Bednarek won his second consecutive silver medal as Lyles came away with his second bronze in the
After previously winning the 100-meter final in a photo finish, Lyles was plagued by a slow start Thursday and was unable to catch Bednarek, who had been the top runner in the 200 throughout the ongoing Paris Olympics.
Lyles now has two bronze medals in the 200, including his third-place finish at the 2020 Tokyo Games.
The field for the men’s 200-meter final featured several contenders, including Bednarek, 20-year-old sensation Erryion Knighton and Tebogo , who beat Lyles in the semifinals.
Bronze medalist Noah Lyles of Team United States competes during the Men’s 200m final
Letsile Tebogo of Team Botswana celebrates winning the gold medal in the 200-meter final
Getting golds in the 100 and 200 at a single Olympics is a rare feat. Usain Bolt accomplished that double at three Olympics in a row — in Beijing in 2008, London in 2012 and Rio de Janeiro in 2016. But until the Jamaican, no man had done it since Carl Lewis at Los Angeles in 1984.
At his last Games, eight years ago, Bolt was shutting it down late in his 200 semifinal, and suddenly realized Andre De Grasse was running hard. So Bolt dialed his speed back up and wagged a finger at the Canadian. Fast-forward to the final: Bolt won easily.
Lyles previously won the 100-meter final in a historic photo finish.
The American showman edged out Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson on Sunday by five-thousandths of a second — that’s .005 of one tick of the clock — in a race for the ages.
The final tally in this one: Lyles 9.784 seconds, Thompson 9.789.
The new champion said that before he left for Paris, one of his physio guys ensured him this race would be a squeaker.
“He said, ‘This is how close first and second are going to be,’” Lyles said as he pinched his thumb and his forefinger together so they were almost touching. “I can’t believe how right he was.”
For perspective, the blink of an eye takes, on average, .1 second. That was 20 times longer than the gap between first and second.
It was so close, that when the sprinters crossed the line and the word “Photo” popped up next to the names of Lyles, Thompson and five others in the eight-man field, Lyles walked over to the Jamaican and said “I think you got the Olympics dog.”
Thompson, who raced three lanes to the left of Lyles and had no clue where he was on the track, wasn’t convinced.
“I was, ‘Wow, I’m not even sure, because it was that close,’” the Jamaican said.
Time would tell. It always does. When Lyles’ name came up first, he snatched his name tag off the front of his bib and held it to the sky. Moments later, he shouted at the TV camera: “America, I told you I got this!”
The first four racers were separated by less than .03. The top seven all finished within .09 of each other.
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.
In the photo finish, Kerley’s orange shoe crossed the line before anyone, or anything. But it’s the chest breaking the barrier that counts. Lyles’ chest crossed first.
This was the closest 1-2 finish in the 100 since at least Moscow in 1980 — or maybe even ever.
