Breaking News: Wow, what a race! Noah Lyles would not be denied the Men’s 100m Gold!Fred Kerley for the bronze! USA USA USA ❤️❤️❤️ Great job to all the finalists!

It’s official. Noah Lyles is the fastest man in the world. However, nobody could have predicted what it would take him to claim that title.

On a night of spectacle and drama in the Stade de France, the American produced the race of his life to win the Paris 2024 men’s 100m title in the closest of photo finishes. The reigning world champion dipped at the line in 9.784 to pip Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson (9.789) to the gold medal by just five-thousandths of a second, as the USA’s Fred Kerley claimed bronze in 9.81.

“I went up to Kishane and I was like, ‘I’m gonna be honest, I think you had that one’,” a beaming Lyles told Eurosport after the race. “I was fully prepared to see his name pop up. and to see my name pop, I’m like, ‘goodness gracious, I’m incredible’.”

Lyles came into the race as the reigning world champion in both the 100m and 200m but he wasn’t the fastest man this year. That title belonged to Thompson, whose time of 9.77 seconds at the Jamaican trials was 0.04 faster than Lyles had ever run.

But Lyles showed supreme speed and the pure determination of a champion to claim a spectacular victory. Thompson, who is making his Olympic debut in Paris, battled valiantly but will leave the stadium this evening ruing how close he came to gold.

“Honestly it’s not just that I didn’t win the gold, it’s that I didn’t better myself in that sense,” a devastated Thompson said after the final. “Today I really gained a lot of experience running with all these great competitors. Big up to all of them. But I really beat myself today in that I didn’t trust myself and my speed to bring myself to the line in first place.”