By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
American Noah Lyles won the Olympic men’s 100m title by five-thousandths of a second from Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson in a dramatic photo finish at Paris 2024.
Lyles overhauled his rivals in the second half of the race to triumph by the finest of margins in a personal best 9.79 seconds at Stade de France.
That was the same time as Olympic debutant Thompson, who led for most of the race, but Lyles produced a spectacular finish to successfully begin his bid for a potential four golds at these Games.
The United States’ former world champion Fred Kerley took bronze in 9.81, edging out South Africa’s Akani Simbine for the podium.
Simbine clocked 9.81 – a new South African record – but finished fourth.
Earlier on Sunday night Simbine qualified for his third straight Olympic 100m final, winning his semifinal in 9.87sec.
He lined up for the final at 9.50pm with the fifth-fastest qualifying time behind Jamaicans Kishane Thompson (9.80) and Oblique Seville (9.81) and Americans Noah Lyles (9.83) and Fred Kerley (9.84).
Simbine was impressive in his semifinal, winning ahead of Botswana’s world championship silver medallist Letsile Tebogo (9.91) and defending Games champion Marcell Jacobs of Italy (9.92).
Neither Shaun Maswanganyi nor Benjamin Richardson advanced to the semifinals.
Maswanganyi ended fifth in the first heat in a 10.02 season’s best and Richardson was third in the final third heat in 9.95.