Eugene. The 200-meter final featured two double smashes and double superhero times.
Bypassing the opponent, Noah Lyles also sent Michael Johnson’s Atlanta classic out of the American record books with a run of 19.31.
– I was honestly in good shape for the world record, but I’m fine with the American record, he says.
He was set up for two matches in the 200m finals.
Nothing came of it.
In the women’s 200m, 100m winner Shelley-Ann Fraser-Pryce couldn’t threaten world number one Sherica Jackson. With her background of just 400 metres, she ran away in the lead-up to achieving a Jamaican double.
“The fastest woman alive now”
Time: 21.45. It is the fastest time in WC history and the second fastest race in the world ever. Only Florence Griffith Joyner’s world record 21.34 beats it.
Fastest woman alive, championship record and national record, I can’t complain! said Jackson, who has now won world championship medals in the 100, 200 and 400 metres.
Most of what was written was the fencing in the men’s 200-meter race. Can 18-year-old shooting star Aeron Knighton challenge Noah Lyles, who won the United States Championship?
No is the short answer.
Lyles flew away from the field already in the corner and then had a one-on-one fight against the clock. He stopped at 19.32 when he crossed the finish line and there was a rattling sound across Hayward Field. Shade Michael Johnson Classic, then unimaginable, world records when she went to the Olympics at her home in Atlanta in 1996. Lyles stood and looked at the clock as if he thought she had passed a hundred.
“He knew he’d run faster.”
But only when Lyles turned him, the time was adjusted by a hundred to 19.31 and a roar rose from the stands. Lyle happily hit the ground and then took home his second gold medal from distance. The time was only twelve percent of the world record held by Usain Bolt.
My coach and I said this would be our best year ever. “I started by getting the American record, it’s a big difference between being number four or number three (ever),” said Noah Lyles.
Michael Johnson himself is in Eugene on behalf of the BBC.
– I knew he’d run faster than 19.32 someday. To be completely honest, once you get the world record, you don’t really focus on the national record, he said after the race.
Just like in the 100m, it was an American triple. Kenny Bednarik took the silver at 19.77 and Aerion Knighton didn’t recover from Lyle’s surprising start to finish third in 19.80.
– I didn’t participate in the race I should have done, he says.
