Noah Lyles finishes third in 200m final, leaves track in a wheelchair
Noah Lyles’ dream of the sprint double has fallen victim to a blue flash and a bout of COVID. Later fellow American superstar Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone broke the world record winning the 400m hurdles.
Noah Lyles’ dream of the sprint double has fallen victim to a blue flash and a bout of COVID. Lyles, bidding to become just the 10th man in Olympic history to win the double at an Olympic Games, had to be content with a bronze medal in his pet event at Stade de France on Friday morning (AEST).
It was a night of high drama for the 100m champion. Lyles, only days after he was crowned the fastest man in the world, was given the loudest cheer by a raucous crowd but quickly found himself in the bad books with race officials
It emerged after the race that Lyles had been given a yellow card - effectively a warning - prior to the starters gun, believed to be for delaying the start. It is understood Lyles slapped his starting block before the race and dislodged the number attached to it, forcing a race official to replace it before the start.
Mind you, that was the least of his problems after he was upstaged by Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo and then helped off the track in a wheelchair. Reports quickly began to circulate that Lyles had tested positive for COVID and race officials initially said he would skip the mixed zone.
However, Lyles did front the media - wearing a mask - to confirm that he had tested positive to COVID three days ago.
He ran the semis with symptoms but it eventually caught up with him in the final as flying Tebogo took gold and Kenneth Bednarek grabbed the silver.
“I tested positive around 5am on Tuesday morning,” Lyles said.
“I woke up in the middle of the night just feeling really chills, aching, sore throat. Those were kind of a lot of the symptoms I’ve always had right before getting Covid.
“And I was just like, I need to test this one. We tested it and it came back positive. So we quickly quarantined in a hotel nearby the village, trying to get me on as much medication as we legally could to make sure that my body was able to just keep the momentum going.
“I still wanted to run the race. It was still possible. So we just stayed away from everybody and just tried to take it round by round.
“I knew if I wanted to come out here and win, I had to give everything I had from the get-go. I didn’t have any time to save energy.”
Lyles conceded it had affected his performance.
“This is by far the best day I felt out of the last three days,” Lyles said.
“I still wouldn’t say I’m 100 percent but I definitely say I’m closer than like 90-95 percent. It definitely affected my performance.
“Even (his partner) Janelle was saying that I was coughing through the night last night. I thought I had a good night’s sleep but she said she had to keep moving me through the night to make sure that I would stop coughing.
“I’m more proud of myself than anything coming out, getting the bronze medal with Covid.”
400M HURDLES SUPERSTAR BREAKS RECORD
US superstar Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone broke the 400m hurdles record for a sixth time to win Olympic gold. The 25 year old set a new mark of 50.37 seconds.
While McLaughlin-Levrone didn’t smash the coveted 50-second mark she was still joyous on the track after winning her second successive Olympic gold in the event, donning a golden tiara in celebration.
The race had been billed as the clash of the titans on the track - with the defending American Olympic champion and reigning world champion Femke Bol going head to head - it was all McLaughlin’s race.
On a muggy, still Paris evening the Stade de France was awash with orange but Bol just couldn’t find it in her legs to match the American. And no wonder. The time the 25 year old ran would have qualified her for the Olympic semi-finals of the 400m flat.
McLaughlin-Levrone dominated, smoking the field in the final straight. It was her compatriot American Anna Cockrell (51.87) who took silver and Bol finished devastated with bronze (52.15).
Bol wiped away tears and ran a lap thanking the loyal Dutch fans that speckled the crowd. The night in her eyes had been a screw up.
“All you want to do in an Olympic final is to put up your best race. I screwed it up. I’m not sure where I made the mistake. I just got so much lactic acid with 300m to go. I’m not sure why, I really have no explanation,” Bol said.
“This is just a bad race. I’ll look at the positives, I’ll talk to my coach, I’ll try to enjoy the bronze.”
Meanwhile McLaughlin-Levrone happily celebrated her third Olympic gold in three Olympics. And while it had been a showdown two years in the making, they had only met twice before on the track, their third race it was simply the American’s night.
In the men’s 100m hurdles Grant Holloway won Olympic gold - going one better than he did at the Tokyo Games. The former roommate of Noah Lyles - had both made a pact to win Olympic gold here in Paris and that they have done.
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