American sprint king Noah Lyles mocks NBA winners being called ‘world champions’ after his 100m-200m double at World Championships: ‘US ain’t the world’

Amercia’s Noah Lyles said his 100-200 sprint double at the World Championships in Hungary is a bigger achievement than titles in most US sports stars due to his global rivals.

Lyles had a 19.52-second runaway victory in the 200m on Friday night to back up last weekend’s 100m victory and suggested afterwards that American sports are held back by a lack of competition overseas.

‘I have to watch the NBA finals and they have world champion on their heads,’ Lyles said. ‘World champion of what? The United States? Don’t get me wrong. I love the US at times. But that ain’t the world.

‘We are the world. We have almost every country out here fighting and thriving and putting on a flag to show that they are represented. There ain’t no flags in the NBA.’

Lyles, 26, has made no secret of his desire to become a truly global sporting star.

‘I think I´ve said a lot of times that I want to transcend the sport. I am the guy who wants to move past just being “track famous”.

He is being followed by Netflix cameras for a series about the world of sprinting but said filmmakers were slow to focus on him and his talents.

‘All I know is they weren’t talking about me at the beginning of that documentary,’ joked Lyles. ‘As soon as I won in Paris they got buddy buddy real quick!

‘I think it went from being a docuseries about the fastest people and then it turned into a docuseries about me.’