Noah's ark of gold!

USA’s Noah Lyles celebrates winning the men’s 100m final during the World Athletics Championships at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest yesterday. Pic/AFP

American Noah Lyles won the men's world 100m title in Budapest on Sunday. Lyles, who already has two world 200m titles to his name, clocked 9.83sec for the victory at the National Athletics Centre. Botswana's Letsile Tebogo and Zharnel Hughes claimed silver and bronze respectively in 9.88s photo-finish.

Lyles had a poor start in the final and was trailing in fourth till the half-way mark before a sudden burst saw him pull away to the front of the pack at the end.

After defending world champion American Fred Kerley failed to advance out of the semi-final, and Lyles (9.87s) qualified fastest among the three semi-finals, it seemed that the gold medal was his for the taking.

Also Read: World Athletics Championships 2023: Avinash Sable utterly sad after not qualifying for 3000m steeplechase final

Kerley, who came in as the favourite, finished third in the final heat with a time of 10.02. The top two finishers in each of the three heats automatically advanced to the final, along with the two other fastest finishers. Kerley missed the final spot by .01 seconds.

America's 2019 world champion Christian Coleman, won the second semi-final in 9.88.

Kerley had started an entertaining verbal tussle with Lyles earlier in the week when he said the 100 was his to win and that if Lyles ran 9.65, he'd run faster. Lyles shot back: "That's what they all say till they get beat."

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever