Sprint king Lyles confident of Olympic treble in Paris

AFP/APP

Paris: Newly minted Olympic 100m champion Noah Lyles has his sights on triple gold at the Paris Games.

Lyles came out on top of a thrilling race at the Stade de France Sunday that ended in a photo-finish to open his golden account.

The American was awarded victory over Jamaican Kishane Thompson by just five-thousandths of a second in the closest finish in modern Olympic history.

Lyles won three golds at last year’s world championships in Budapest and the 27-year-old said he was eyeing a repeat in the French capital.

“I’m pretty confident, I can’t lie,” said Lyles.

He is seeking to emulate Usain Bolt, the last sprinter to achieve the treble.

The Jamaican legend did it at the 2016 Rio Games, having also done it four years previously in London.

“Kenny (Bednarek) definitely put up a fast time (in the 200m) at trials and that definitely woke me up — and I was very proud of him.

“He’s definitely not going to take how he did here in the 100m lying down. He’s going to say ‘I’m going after it in the 200m’ because he knows he can go after it.”

But Lyles had a message for any pretenders to the crown in the 200m, an event in which he is reigning three-time world champion.

“I’ll be winning!” he said. “None of them is winning. When I come off the turn, They will be depressed.”

Lyles’ winning time in the 100m was a personal best, but he’d known something was cooking after timing 9.83sec in the semi-finals.

“When I saw that, I know I’m going to be difficult to beat, I’m about to set a personal record,” he said.

“I called my therapist and she was like, ‘you need to let go, you need to let it flow’, and I was like, ‘alright I’m going to trust you’.”

The therapy certainly worked and set Lyles up perfectly for a tilt at a treble, with the 4x100m relay to follow the 200m, round one of which is on Monday.

Lyles came away from the Covid-delayed Tokyo Games with just a bronze in the 200m, something he said left him with burning in his chest.

But he was adamant that he had changed in the three years since then.

“Oh gosh, this is definitely a different Noah, 100 percent,” said Lyles, who has openly talked about his struggles with mental health and depression in recent years.

“I’m definitely not depressed. Don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely feeling normal stress. I definitely feel the moment. It’s a lot to deal with.

“I think back to Tokyo when I messed up handling the rounds. From then on, I was like, ‘I’m never going to do that again. I’m going to handle this correctly and practice over the years’.