Noah Lyles wins a historically close Olympic 100-meter sprint by five-thousandths of a second

ah Lyles paced on far end of track, hands folded over top of his he, wistfully looking up at a scoreboard that would, sooner or later, flash an answer he’s been seeking over three sweat-soaked years.

Was all that toil since last Olympics — all work on practice track and in weight room in name of finding a centimeter here or a millisecond re — really going to be worth all trouble?

Ten seconds passed, n 20. n, nearly 30. And n, answer popped up.

Yes, Lyles is 100-meter champion at Paris Olympics. World’s Fastest Man.

Just t by very much.

American showman edged out Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson on Sunday by five-thousandths of a second — that’s .005 of one tick of clock — in a race for s.

final tally in this one: Lyles 9.784 seconds, Thompson 9.789.

new champion said that before he left for Paris, one of his physio guys ensured him this race would be a squeaker.

“He said, ‘This is how close first and second are going to be,’” Lyles said as he pinched his thumb and his forefinger toger so y were almost touching. “I can’t believe how right he was.”

For perspective, blink of an eye takes, on aver, .1 second. That was 20 times longer than gap between first and second.

It was so close, that when sprinters crossed line and word “Photo” popped up next to names of Lyles, Thompson and five ors in eight-man field, Lyles walked over to Jamaican and said “I think you got Olympics dog.”

Thompson, who raced three lanes to left of Lyles and h clue where he was on track, wasn’t convinced.

“I was, ‘Wow, I’m t even sure, because it was that close,’” Jamaican said.

Time would tell. It always does. When Lyles’ name came up first, he snatched his name tag off front of his bib and held it to sky. Moments later, he shouted at TV camera: “America, I told you I got this!”

first four racers were separated by less than .03. top seven all finished within .09 of each or.

America’s Fred Kerley came in third at 9.81. “That’s probably one of most beautiful races I’ve been in,” he said.

In photo finish, Kerley’s orange shoe crossed line before anyone, or anything. But it’s chest breaking barrier that counts. Lyles’ chest crossed first.

This was closest 1-2 finish in 100 since at least Moscow in 1980 — or maybe even ever.

Back n, Britain’s Allan Wells narrowly beat Silvio Leonard in an era when electronic timers didn’t go into thousandths of a second. same was true in 1932, when Eddie Tolan won Olympics’ first ever photo finish.

Lyles conceded that during excruciating wait, he was pretty sure he h dipped his chest just a t too soon. Dipping, it turns out, is one of few things he doesn’t work on over and over again at his training track in Florida.

“But I would say I have a decent history with dipping,” he said, recalling races he won in high school and as a junior.

9.784 marked a new personal best for Lyles and me him first American champion in marquee race at Olympics since Justin Gatlin in 2004.

Lyles is hoping to go even bigger than that, and maybe take this sport back to a day when it was Carl Lewis and Edwin Moses lighting up track — a must-see affair, likes of which Lyles helined in front of around 80,000 on a warm night at Ste de France.

mission started after Lyles settled for a bronze medal in Tokyo in his favorite — and n, only — sprint, 200. Those COVID-impacted Games were a terrible experience for Lyles. He rededicated himself to bettering his mental health, but also looked for a new mission — 100 meters and, with it, a chance at track immortality.

practice was tough for a sprinter never kwn as a great starter, but he stuck with it. When he won world championships last year, n backed it up by winning 200, his goal for Paris was very much in sight.

But when he came into Olympic final having finished second in both his qualifying races and staring across at one sprinter who h run faster than him this year — Thompson — and ar who h beaten him twice this year — Jamaica’s Oblique Seville — he knew this would be coronation.

Thompson ded ar roblock when, during introduction, he let out a primal scream, likes of which Lyles has been unleashing in some of his biggest races.

“I thought ‘Man, that’s my thing, that’s crazy,’” Lyles said.

Lyles galloped and leapt about 20 yards down track before returning to starting line, where runners waited some three minutes for gun to finally sound.

It was worth wait.

w, question that could be debated for years is: What was difference in this one?

Could it have been Lyles’ closing speed and that lean into line that he thought was mistimed?

Was it his ability to stay in reach of everyone among this straight line of sprinters over first 60 meters — a skill he’s been working on in tedious practice after practice since he took on shorter sprint?

answer: all that and more.

“Everyone in field came out kwing y could win this race,” Lyles said.

It took 9.784 seconds, n about 30 seconds more, for scoreboard to flash name of man who actually did.

“Seeing that name, I was like ‘Oh my gosh, re it is!’” Lyles said.

Gold (and bronze) for Ukrainian high jumpers

Yaroslava Mahuchikh won Olympic gold in high jump for her war-torn country of Ukraine and, as a bonus, h company. Her teammate Iryna Gerashchenko won bronze and teammates hopped, skipped and jumped around track paring ir blue-and-yellow flags in a heartfelt celebration.

Mahuchikh needed fewer tries to clear winning height of 2 meters than Australia’s Nicola Olyslrs, and so, ded sport’s biggest prize of all — Olympic gold — to her world championship and world record.

Kerr vs Ingebrigtsen is a go for heated men’s 1,500

best rivalry in track will culminate Tuesday when reigning world champion Josh Kerr of Britain takes on defending Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen of rway.

y squared off in Sunday’s semifinal, too, and Ingebrigtsen edged out Brit, looking over to him twice as y surged down homestretch, to win a race that felt like it meant more than it should have in 3:32.38.

“y should be expecting one of most vicious and hardest 1,500s sport’s seen in a very long time,” Kerr said.

Did Ingebrigtsen agree?

“Depends who you ask, maybe,” he said. “I mean, racing is what you want it to be.”