Noah Lyles went ahead of compatriot Kenny Bednarek on the final stretch of the race and then held him to the finish line to win his fourth title in the 200m athletics World Cup, in the end held on Friday (19).
Lyles ended with the time of 19s52, with a margin of 0.06 seconds over his opponent, who led the big decision until half of the race.
Now the 28-year-old American equalized Jamaican with four titles in 200 meters in. Instead of exchanging glances and pushing with Kenny Bednarek, Noah raised four fingers and said to the camera: “It’s four, baby.”
Jamaican Bryan Level was third with 19s64, and current Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo, from Botsuana, ended in a fourth (19s65).
Champion’s trajectory
Noah Lyles won the main test of the night, one that was being built in the last seven weeks – or four years – depending on the point of view.
In 2021, Lyles suffered after months of confinement due to Covid-19 and arrived at the visibly depressed Tokyo Olympic Games. Running in an almost empty stadium, he won the 200m bronze medal and saved this achievement as fuel for what he would come.
More recently, there was his victory in the United States National Championship, marked by the challenging look at Bednarek, followed by the push of his rival in Noah on the finish line. Among these moments, Tebogo won the Paris-2024 Olympics, in a race that Noah Lyles even played with Covid.
All of this took the athletes to the starting line on a cold night in Tokyo at the 20th edition of the Athletics World Cup.
Lyles did not drop perfectly, but never panicked. He reached Bednarek, opened an advantage of two steps about 50 meters and then held firmly, calmly raising four fingers in the air – one for each title in a sequence that started six years ago in Qatar.
Melissa Jefferson takes double in the feminine
Minutes after Noah Lyles’s gold, Melissa Jefferson-Wooden completed the double in speed by winning the 200m among women this Friday (19), with the time of 21s68.
She was the first to take gold in the 100 and 200m rations in world championships since Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in 2013. Amy Hunt, from Britain, and Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson completed the podium.
