The penultimate day of the American Trials in the sanctuary of Hayward Field, Eugene (Oregon) further projected the figure of Noah Lyles towards a candidate to be the king of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and extinguished Sha’Carri Richardson’s options to discuss supremacy with any of the formidable swimmers who will gather around La Defense or Simone Biles.
The American sprinter (22.12) was only fourth in the 200 meters and she lost the option of doubling the distance – she will run the 4×100 relay – this summer, surpassed by Gabrielle Thomas (21.81), the 2024 record holder; Brittany Brown (21.90) and McKenzie Long (21.91) and her touching story.
Long lost his mother last winter. She suffered a heart attack at age 45. As therapy he always talks out loud with her. “Every time I get on the starting blocks in a final I tell her: Mom, this is the last race, help me,” she revealed to reporters. At the moment she has been a university champion in the 100 and 200, in addition to being the second fastest woman in the course in the curve with the 21.83 that she threw in the semifinals.
The comparison with Bolt
Lyles did claim the spotlight for himself. Even the exaggerated comparison What is done with Usain Bolt. “Break his record in Paris? I love these kinds of challenges. The more important a competition is, the more I run,” he said after completing a brilliant race. He stopped the clock at 19.53, the best mark in the history of the Trials (he broke a record set in 1996 by Michael Johnson), the seventeenth fastest corner in history, a list in which he has participated in seven (Bolt, four), with 19.31 as the best service.
The American reference for current speed,who already won 100 Last week, he was followed by Kenneth Bednarek, Olympic silver in Tokyo ahead of Lyles, who made the second best world mark of the year (19.59) and the young Erriyon Knighton, who already qualified three years ago when he was 17 for the Games and that stopped at 19.77. The promise has been involved this year in a doping episode, of which he was acquitted after it was proven that he had ingested meat contaminated with trenbolone. He was suspended for two months and the Trials were his first outdoor competition of the course.
The disappointment, and another athlete involved with shady episodes, It was Christian Coleman. He made a big curve, but sank hopelessly at the entrance to the straight. He had already been fourth in the 100 meters. He will be left with the consolation of the 4×100.
This final closed on Saturday in Eugene, where they were also crowned as champions, among others, Tara Davis in length with just 7 meters (and illegal wind of 2.6), Weini Kelaiti (31:41.07 in 10,000) and Andrew Evans, 66.61 with the discus. Superstar Sydney McLaughlin, who of course dominated the 400 hurdles semifinals, will be the star of the closing of these championships.
