This is SAINT-DENIS, France. Noah Lyles beat Kishane Thompson of Jamaica by.005 seconds to win the 100-meter race at the Olympics on Sunday. It took him about 30 seconds after the race was over to find out that he had won, making it one of the closest sprints in history.
After Lyles, Thompson, and five others crossed the line, the word “Photo” appeared next to their names on the scoreboard.
Lyles walked along the track with his arms around his head. Things finally got better. It took Lyles 9.784 seconds to beat the Jamaican by a tiny bit more than a tick of the clock.
Lyles told Thompson, “Bro, I think you got that one.” He said this because he thought Thompson had given away the win by dipping at the line too soon.
“But then my name showed up, and I thought, ‘Wow, that’s crazy!'”
At 9.81, Fred Kerley from the United States came in third.
“I think that was one of the most beautiful races I’ve ever been to,” he said.
All seven of the top finishers were only.09 behind each other.
It was the closest finish between two runners in the 100 since at least Moscow in 1980, and maybe even ever. In those days, when electronic timers didn’t go down to the thousandths of a second, Britain’s Allan Wells just barely beat Silvio Leonard. In 1932, Eddie Tolan won the first-ever photo finish in the Olympics.
The officer said, “I thought I had him cleared.” “I wasn’t sure, though.” It was really close.
Lyles won the most important track event at the Olympics. No American had done that since Justin Gatlin in 2004.
The 9.784 is also a personal best for Lyles, who had promised to add his own style of excitement to the track, and he did just that this time.
Later this week, he will be a favourite in the 200 meters, which is his best race. He will try to become the second runner after Usain Bolt to win both sprints at the Olympics.
It takes about.1 second for an eye to blink, which is 20 times longer than the time between the first and second frames in this case.
What was different? Perhaps Lyles’ speed when closing and that lean into the line that he thought was off.
Two of the three slowest starts came from him and Thompson. Thompson had what was good enough for a “lead” at the halfway point. There is a picture of the finish line that shows Kerley’s orange shoe way ahead of everyone else. But the chest that breaks the wall is what matters, and Lyles was just ahead of everyone else.
The American knew he had won the Olympic gold medal in the 100-meter race after winning the world title in the same event last year. He took off his name tag, held it high in the air, and pointed at the camera.
Out loud, he said, “America, I told you I got this!”
He is, in fact, the fastest man in the world. But not by much.
